Rising fuel prices push up wholesale, retail inflation

Tribune News Service/PTI

New Delhi, May 14 

Inflation based on wholesale prices touched a four-month high of 3.18% in April on increasing prices of petrol and diesel as well as fruits and vegetables.

The Wholesale Price Index (WPI) based inflation stood at 2.47% in March and 3.85% in April last year.

WPI inflation, which was on a declining trend since December 2017, accelerated in April due to an unfavourable base effect, a seasonal uptick in food prices and the pass through of rising global crude oil prices. Inflation in December was 3.58%.

According to government data released on Monday, inflation in food articles was at 0.87% in April 2018, as against a deflation of 0.29% in the preceding month. Inflation in fruits was in double digits at 19.47% in April, up from 9.26% in March.

In the ‘fuel and power’ basket in WPI, petrol inflation spiked to 9.45% in April from 2.55% in March while in case of diesel, it jumped to 13.01% from 6.12% in the previous month. Meanwhile, reversing the declining trend, retail inflation also moved up to 4.58% in April due to hardening in prices of cereals, meat, fish and fruits.

The inflation based on Consumer Price Index (CPI), a key data factored in by the RBI while deciding interest rate, was 4.28% in March. The inflation was at 2.99% in April last year.

Assocham said the inflation in petrol and diesel was the main worry. “Going forward, increasing crude oil prices and their cascading impact would be one of the key worry areas for the Indian economy”, said Assocham secretary general DS Rawat.

Petrol, diesel dearer

New Delhi: After a gap of 19 days, coinciding with run-up to the Karnataka elections, petrol price was on Monday hiked by 17 paisa a litre and diesel by 21 paisa per litre as PSU oil firms began passing on the spike witnessed in international rates to consumers. Petrol price in Delhi was hiked to Rs 74.80 per litre from Rs 74.63 while diesel rates were increased to Rs 66.14 a litre from Rs 65.93. Senior Congress leader P Chidambaram said the burden on the consumer has returned following the interval of Karnataka elections. “There we go again. More taxes on petrol and diesel, more burden on the consumer. The Karnataka election was only an interval”, he said in a tweet. tns