Wholesale price inflation rose to 2.38 per cent in February, primarily due to an increase in the prices of manufacture of food products, food articles, other manufacturing, non-food articles and the manufacture of textiles.
The month-on-month change in the wholesale price inflation for February stood at 0.06 per cent as compared to January.
Earlier, a report by the Union Bank of India predicted a decline in WPI in February 2025. The report said that the WPI may come down to 2 per cent, primarily due to a drop in oil prices and a seasonal decline in food prices.
While wholesale food inflation slowed to 5.94 per cent last month from 7.47 per cent in January, primary articles inflation in February came down to 2.81 per cent from 4.69 per cent in January.
The fuel and power wholesale prices contracted by 0.71 per cent last month as against a contraction of 2.78 per cent in January.
As per the data released by the Ministry of Commerce & Industry, inflation in manufactured food products rose to 11.06 per cent, vegetable oil rose by 33.59 per cent, while beverages increased marginally to 1.66 per cent during the month.
However, prices of vegetables cooled with potato prices dropping to 27.54 per cent from 74.28 per cent during the month.
The Food Index consisting of 'food articles' from primary articles group and 'food product' from manufactured products group decreased from 191.4 in January, 2025 to 189.0 in February, 2025. The annual rate of inflation based on WPI Food Index decreased from 7.47 per cent in January, 2025 to 5.94 per cent in February, 2025.
Earlier, subdued food prices in February pulled down retail inflation below the Reserve Bank's median target of 4 per cent while the country's manufacturing sector pushed the key factory output index to 5 per cent in January.