Food inflation increased slightly to 6.88% in March.

New Delhi:

The country’s wholesale inflation edged up to 0.53% in March from 0.20% in the previous month due to higher vegetable, potato, onion and crude oil prices.

Inflation based on the Wholesale Price Index (WPI) was in negative territory from April to October and turned positive in November at 0.26%. The inflation rate in March 2023 was 1.41%.

“The annual inflation rate in March 2024 (compared to March 2023) based on All India Wholesale Price Index (WPI) data was 0.53% (tentative),” the Ministry of Commerce and Industry said in a statement on Monday.

Data showed that the food inflation rate rose slightly to 6.88% in March from 5.42% in the same period last year. The vegetable inflation rate was 19.52%, higher than (-2.39)% in the same period last year.

In March 2023, the WPI of potatoes rose by 52.96%, while the deflation rate was 25.59%; the WPI of onions rose by 56.99%, while (-) was 36.83%.

Data show that due to strong global crude oil prices, inflation in the crude oil sector increased by 10.26% in March this year, while deflation in March 2023 was 23.53%.

However, retail inflation fell to a five-month low of 4.85% in March, mainly due to cooling food prices.

The retail inflation rate based on the Consumer Price Index (CPI) was 5.09% in February 2023 and 5.66% in March 2023. Previously, the lowest CPI-based inflation rate in October 2023 was 4.87%.

According to data released by the National Statistics Office (NSO) last week, food basket inflation was 8.52% in March, down from 8.66% in February.

(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)