India's March WPI inflation accelerates to record 14.55%

India's wholesale price-based inflation quickened to 14.55 per cent in March from 13.11 per cent in February amid hardening of fuel prices.

Retail inflation for March has also climbed to 6.95 per cent, a 17-month high, as food prices went up.

The full impact of local fuel prices will begin to show in subsequent months.

Fuel prices were up 34.52% on the year versus 31.50% in February. The food index rose 8.71 per cent in March compared to 8.47 per cent in February. The food index comprises food articles from primary articles and food products from manufactured products.

Food article inflation eased to 8.06 per cent in March compared to 8.2 per cent in February. Vegetable inflation slowed to 19.88 per cent in March from 26.93 per cent in February.

Inflation in crude petroleum and natural gas accelerated to 69.2 per cent in March from 46.14 per cent in February.

"The high rate of inflation in March, 2022 is primarily due to rise in prices of crude petroleum and natural gas, mineral oils, basic metals, etc owing to disruption in global supply chain caused by Russia-Ukraine conflict," the govt release said.

The core WPI inflation hardened in March with a 2.2% sequential rise amid global supply disruptions caused by the protracted Russia-Ukraine war.

"The core WPI recorded a broad-based and massive 2.2% jump in sequential terms in March 2022, a fallout of the geopolitical tensions, with the inflation rate rising to 10.9%. Only four of the 21 sub-groups of the core index escaped a month on month rise in March 2022, namely beverages, other transport equipment, wearing apparel and pharmaceutical products," Aditi Nayar, chief economist, ICRA, said.

The RBI has taken note of the rising inflation and shifted its focus on tackling rising prices and withdrawal of accommodation.

It has also revised its inflation projection upwards to 5.7 per cent from 4.5 per cent earlier for FY23. The RBI takes into account the CPI or retail inflation and not the WPI-based inflation for arriving at monetary policy decisions.