India’s wholesale price inflation accelerated at a faster-than-expected pace in May to reach a new record high amid surging costs for fuel and power, provisional data from the Ministry of Commerce and Industry revealed on Tuesday.
The wholesale price index climbed 15.88 percent year-over-year in May, faster than the 15.08 percent rise in April. Economists had expected inflation to rise marginally to 15.10 percent.
Wholesale price inflation has now remained at a double-digit figure for the fourteenth successive month in May, and the latest one was the highest since the series started in 2013, reports said.
The upward trend in inflation was mainly due to a 40.62 percent spike in fuel and power prices.
Prices for primary articles surged 19.71 percent and those of manufactured products gained 10.11 percent.
Food prices alone rose 12.34 percent in May from last year, of which vegetable prices grew the most by 56.36 percent. Costs for non-food articles also logged a sharp growth of 24.14 percent.
On a monthly basis, wholesale prices moved up 1.38 percent in May, following a 2.01 percent increase in the prior month.
Data released on Monday showed that consumer price inflation eased marginally to 7.04 in May from a near eight year high of 7.79 percent in April.
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