Higher prices of primary food items like onion and potatoes accelerated country’s wholesale prices based inflation to 2.59 per cent in December from 0.58 per cent in November, official data stated.
The annual inflation, based on monthly wholesale price index (WPI), was at 3.46 per cent during the same month a year ago.
“Build up inflation rate in the financial year so far was 2.42 per cent compared to a build up rate of 2.92 per cent in the corresponding period of the previous year,” the ministry said in its review of ‘Index Numbers of Wholesale Price in India’ for December.
As per the data released by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, the rate of price rise for food articles rose to 13.12 per cent during December as against 11 per cent a month earlier, while for non-food articles it rose nearly four-fold to 7.72 per cent from 1.93 per cent in November.
Among all eatables, price of vegetables rose by 69.69 per cent mainly on account of onion, which witnessed 455.83 per cent jump in prices, followed by potato at 44.97 per cent.
The key macroeconomic inflation data comes a day after Consumer Price Index (CPI) for December showed an accelerating trend. It touched a 65-month high at 7.35 per cent from 5.54 per cent in November.
(With input from agencies)
