New Delhi, Feb 14 (FN Bureau) India’s wholesale price index (WPI)-based inflation eased to 2.31% year-on-year in January 2025 from 2.37% in the previous month, as per official data released on Friday. “Positive rate of inflation in January, 2025 is primarily due to increase in prices of manufacture of food products, food articles, other manufacturing, non-food articles and manufacture of textiles etc,” Ministry of Commerce and Industry said in a press release.
The month over month change in WPI for the month of January, 2025 stood at (-) 0.45% as compared to December, 2024. As per the official data, the annual rate of inflation based on WPI Food Index decreased to 7.47% in January this year from 8.89% in the previous month. The WPI captures the average movement of wholesale prices of goods and is primarily used as a GDP deflator. It reckons only basic prices and does not include taxes, rebate/trade discounts, transport and other charges. Unlike consumer price index (CPI)-based inflation which is based on prices paid by consumers for buying goods and services, WPI inflation tracks prices of goods at wholesale or bulk level. Staying below Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) comfort level, India’s CPI-based inflation eased to 4.31% year-on-year in January 2025 from 5.22% in the previous month.