India's Wholesale Inflation Eases to 0.85pc in April
As per the data, food articles saw a deflation of 0.86 per cent in April, against an inflation of 1.57 per cent in March.
New Delhi: With a significant drop in the prices of food, fuel and primary articles, India’s wholesale inflation cooled to 0.85 per cent for the month of April 2025. However, food inflation, consisting of food articles from primary articles group and food products from manufactured products group, saw a sharp decline from 4.66 per cent in March to 2.55 per cent in April, the government data showed on Wednesday.
As per the data released by ministry of commerce & industry, wholesale price index or WPI-based inflation was 2.05 per cent in March, while it was 1.19 per cent in April last year. “In April, the deflation in food, and fuel and power WPI, along with disinflation in manufactured products drove the moderation. The WPI inflation lower than 0.85 per cent was last recorded in March, 2024, when it was 0.26 per cent,” the industry ministry said.
“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 ministry said in a statement.
As per the data, food articles saw a deflation of 0.86 per cent in April, against an inflation of 1.57 per cent in March. Deflation in vegetables was also 18.26 per cent during April compared to deflation of 15.88 per cent in March. “In onion, inflation eased to 0.20 per cent in April, as against 26.65 per cent in March. Inflation in fruits also softened to 8.38 per cent, from 20.78 per cent in the previous month,” the data showed.
“Similarly, potato and pulses saw a deflation of 24.30 per cent and 5.57 per cent, respectively. Deflation in fuel and power was 2.18 per cent in April, compared to a 0.20 per cent inflation in March. However, manufactured products saw inflation at 2.62 per cent in April, compared to 3.07 per cent in March,” the data showed.
Economists and analysts like ICRA senior economist Rahul Agrawal said that the IMD’s expectation of an early monsoon onset in Kerala and an above normal monsoon in the country is a positive for crop output, and consequently, the food inflation outlook, although the spatial and temporal distribution of the same remains key.
Easing of inflation would create enough room for the Reserve Bank of India, which mainly takes into account retail inflation while formulating monetary policy, to go in for another round of rate cut in the June monetary policy review. “We expect the WPI to average sub-2 per cent in FY2026, which, along with our CPI inflation and real GDP projections for the fiscal, implies that nominal GDP growth may be capped at 9 per cent,” Agrawal added.