India’s wholesale inflation eases to lowest in 13 months, April data at 0.86%

Wholesale Price Inflation (WPI) fell to 0.85 percent in April as prices for food, manufactured goods and petrol fell, according to government statistics released on Wednesday.

WPI-based inflation was 2.05% in March. It was 1.19% in April last year.

“Positive rate of inflation in April, 2025 is primarily due to an increase in prices of manufacture of food products, other manufacturing, chemicals and chemical products, manufacture of other transport equipment and manufacture of machinery and equipment, etc,” the industry ministry said in a statement.

According to the WPI data, food products had a 0.86 percent deflation in April, compared to 1.57 percent inflation in March, with vegetables falling sharply. Vegetable prices fell 18.26% in April, compared to 15.88% in March. In April, onion inflation fell to 0.20 percent, from 26.65 percent in March.

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However, inflation in manufactured items was 2.62 percent in April, down from 3.07 percent in March.

Fuel and power prices fell 2.18 percent in April, compared to 0.20 percent in March.

The RBI mainly takes into account retail inflation while formulating monetary policy. Data released on Tuesday showed, retail inflation eased to 3.16 per cent in April mainly due subdued prices of vegetables, fruits, pulses, and other protein-rich items. This is the lowest level of inflation since July 2019.

Easing of inflation would create enough room for the Reserve Bank to go in for another round of rate cut in the June monetary policy review.

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In April, the RBI cut the benchmark policy rate by 0.25 per cent to 6 per cent. This is the second cut during the year to stimulate the economy, facing the threat of US reciprocal tariffs. The RBI sees retail inflation averaging 4 per cent in the current fiscal from the previous estimate of 4.2 per cent.