Wholesale inflation had touched a high of 3.85% in February 2023."Positive rate of inflation in June, 2024 is primarily due to increase in prices of food articles, manufacture of food products, crude petroleum & natural gas, mineral oils, other manufacturing etc," the Ministry of Commerce & Industry said in a statement on Monday.
As per the data, inflation in food articles rose 10.87% cent in June, as against 9.82% in May.
Inflation in vegetables was 38.76% during June, up from 32.42% in May. Onion inflation was at 93.35%, while potato was 66.37% in the month under review. Pulses inflation rose 21.64% in June.
During the month, inflation in other food items like fruits stood at 10.14%, cereals at 9.27%, and milk at 3.37%. The up move in the WPI inflation in June 2024 was broad-based, driven by all the major segments except fuel and power, ICRA Chief Economist Aditi Nayar said.
Looking ahead, she said, the headline WPI inflation is expected to dip to about 2% in July 2024, driven by a favourable base, as well as some cooling in global commodity prices. With regard to oil prices, she said, the average price of the Indian basket of crude oil has been quite volatile in July 2024 so far, on the back of supply-demand mismatches, witnessing a month-on-month rise (USD 86.6/bbl up to July 11).
Higher crude oil prices might exert an upward pressure to the headline WPI inflation in the ongoing month, she added. In the fuel and power basket, inflation stood at 1.03%, marginally lower than 1.35% in May.
However, price rise in crude petroleum & natural gas was in double digit at 12.55%during the month. In manufactured products, inflation was at 1.43% in June, higher than 0.78% in May. The rise in June WPI was in line with the