Wholesale Price based inflation spikes to 3-month-high at 0.53% in March
The annual rate of inflation based on the all India Wholesale Price Index (WPI) number has risen marginally to 0.53 per cent for March 2024, the government said on Monday.
The government today claimed that the all-India average retail price of onion as of 17 February was Rs.35.28/kg which is 22.36 per cent lower than that of the last year.
Late Kharif onion arrivals are steady and expected to remain so till the Rabi arrival from March 2022.
The prices of Onion remained substantially stable during 2021-22 due to effective market intervention through the Price Stabilisation Fund (PSF). Onion buffer of 2.08 LMT built-in current year under the Price Stabilisation Fund (PSF) has been released in a calibrated and targeted manner to States/Cities where prices are increasing over the previous month and also to source markets such as Lasalgaon and Pimplegaon to augment the availability in these key mandis.
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Further, states/UTs had been offered onion at Rs.21/kg ex-storage locations and Safal had also been supplied @ Rs.26/kg inclusive of transportation cost. The aggressive releases of onion from the buffer have contributed to stability in prices, an official release said.
Similarly, the retail prices of potato as of 17.2.2022 was Rs.20.58/kg, 6.96 per cent lower than last month. Potato sowing has been delayed in the southern part of West Bengal due to cyclone Jawad. However, the state reported that crop area has recovered almost to the level of last year. The total crop area for 2021-22 is estimated to be comparable with that of the last year.
The retail price of tomato has been on a decline during the past one month though it remained slightly above the year’s level. As of 17 February, the all-India average price of Tomato was Rs 26.69/kg which is lower than the last month.
As arrivals in north India will pick up pace and prices will go down further in the coming week. Arrivals in South India will also increase in the coming week and will pick up the pace till the end of February, the release added.
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