WPI Inflation accelerates to 3.18% in April on rising fuel prices, costlier fruits and vegetables

New Delhi: Inflation based on wholesale prices shot up to 3.18 percent 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 percent in March and 3.85 percent in April last year. According to government data released today, inflation in food articles was at 0.87 percent in April 2018, as against a deflation of 0.29 percent in the preceding month. [caption id=“attachment_1958827” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Inflation. Representative image. AFP[/caption] Deflation in vegetables was 0.89 percent in April, while in the previous month it was 2.70 percent. Inflation in ‘fuel and power’ basket rose sharply to 7.85 percent in April from 4.70 percent in March as prices of domestic fuel increased in line with rising global crude oil rates. Inflation in fruits was in double digits at 19.47 percent in April, up from 9.26 percent in the previous month. The WPI inflation for February was revised upwards to 2.74 percent from the provisional estimate of 2.48 percent. In its first monetary policy review for the fiscal, the Reserve Bank last month maintained status-quo on interest rate citing inflationary concerns. Data on retail inflation is scheduled to be released later in the day. RBI mainly takes into account retail inflation data while formulating monetary policy. The central bank revised downward forecast for retail inflation to 4.7-5.1 percent for April-September and 4.4 percent for October-March.