India’s wholesale inflation turns positive after two months in negative; August WPI at 0.52%

NEW DELHI: India’s wholesale inflation based on all-India Wholesale Price Index (WPI) number in August is reported at 0.52 per cent (provisional), official data showed Monday. The wholesale inflation turned positive in August after remaining in the negative in the past two months, largely in line with a marginal jump in retail inflation.

A little wholesale inflation is considered by many economists as healthy as it pushes businesses to manufacture or produce more. The Ministry of Commerce and Industry has attributed the positive rate of wholesale inflation in August primarily to increase in prices of food products, other manufacturing, non-food articles, other non-metallic mineral products and other transport equipment etc.

The government releases index number of wholesale price in India on monthly basis on 14th of every month (or next working day, if 14th falls on holiday) with a time lag of two weeks of the reference month, and the index number is compiled with data received from institutional sources and selected manufacturing units across the country.

Coming to the retail inflation numbers released last week, India’s retail inflation, as measured by the Consumer Price Index (CPI), inched up marginally to 2.07 per cent in August 2025 on a year-on-year basis. This is an increase of 46 basis points in the headline inflation of August 2025 in comparison to July.

Year-on-year food inflation rate, based on All India Consumer Food Price Index (CFPI) for the month of August, 2025 over August, 2024 is – 0.69% (Provisional). Corresponding inflation rates for rural and urban are -0.70% and -0.58%, respectively. An increase in headline inflation and food inflation during the month of August, 2025 is mainly attributed to an increase in inflation of vegetables, meat and fish, oil and fats, egg, etc.

The top five major states with high year-on-year inflation for the month of August were Kerala, Karnataka, Jammu and Kashmir, Punjab and Tamil Nadu, according to the Ministry. However, the inflation rate is within the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) manageable range of 2-6 per cent.

In July, the retail inflation eased sharply to 1.55 per cent, marking the lowest level since June 2017. Inflation has been a concern for many countries, including advanced economies, but India has largely managed to steer its inflation trajectory well. The RBI held its benchmark repo rate steady at 6.5 per cent for the eleventh consecutive time, before cutting it for the first time in about five years in February 2025.

India’s retail inflation edged up modestly in August, but economists and industry leaders believe the rise is temporary and unlikely to upset the country’s broader price stability, partly due to recent GST reforms. After the recent RBI MPC meeting, the inflation outlook for the year 2025-26 was revised downwards from the earlier forecast of 4 per cent to 3.7 per cent. (ANI)