NEW DELHI (Reuters) -India’s wholesale price index in November rose 0.26% from a year earlier, returning to positive territory after seven months on higher food prices, government data showed on Thursday.
The rise in the index was steeper than 0.08% growth expected by economists polled by Reuters. It fell 0.52% in October.
In November, food prices rose 4.69% year-on-year compared with a rise of 1.07% in October, while manufactured product prices fell 0.64% against a 1.13% fall the previous month.
Fuel and power prices fell 4.61% from a year earlier, compared with a 2.47% drop in October. Prices of primary articles were up 4.76% versus a rise of 1.82% a month earlier.
India’s retail inflation in November rose at its fastest pace in three months due to higher food prices, strengthening expectations that the central bank will not ease interest rates anytime soon.
Reserve Bank of India Governor Shaktikanta Das said last week the near-term outlook was “masked by risks to food inflation,” which might lead to an uptick in November and December even though core inflation, which excludes volatile food and fuel prices, has broadly moderated.
(Reporting by Shivangi Acharya and Sarita Chaganti Singh; Editing by Christopher Cushing)
