Informist Poll
March WPI inflation seen unchanged at 2.4% from Feb
This story was originally published at 15:25 IST on 11 April 2025
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By Shubham Rana
NEW DELHI – India's wholesale inflation likely remained steady at 2.4% in March, according to the median of estimates of 10 economists polled by Informist. WPI inflation was 2.38?bruary and 0.26% in March 2024.
Economists' estimates for WPI inflation ranged from 2.1% to 2.7%. The commerce ministry will release WPI data for March at 1200 IST on Tuesday.
Wholesale inflation is seen to have been little changed in March from February due to lower food prices being offset by an uptick in core inflation, economists said. "Food WPI saw a sustained downtick on seasonal trends," Union Bank of India's economists said in a report.
Vegetable prices continued to decline on a month-on-month basis in March, while those of edible oils rose marginally. According to data from the Department of Consumer Affairs, wholesale prices of tomato, onion, and potato were down 11.0%, 6.5%, and 7.1%, respectively, in March from the previous month. Pulses prices also fell 0.4-5.6%.
Driving core inflation--or inflation excluding volatile food and fuel items--higher last month were manufactured food items, whose prices are expected to have recorded an increase due to higher edible oil and sugar prices, Union Bank of India said.
Inflation for non-food manufactured products may have also risen in March. According to S&P Global's manufacturing Purchasing Mangers' Index data, input cost inflation was at a three-month high last month. Manufactured products, which account for nearly two-thirds of the WPI, saw their prices rise by 2.86% year-on-year in February, the most in 25 months.
Higher global metal prices likely pushed up core WPI inflation in March from February's seven-month high of 1.3%, with Teresa John, deputy head of research and economist at Nirmal Bang Institutional Equities, forecasting these prices to have risen 2.1% on year last month.
The following is a summary of the poll by Informist on WPI inflation in March:
|
ORGANISATION |
WPI INFLATION ESTIMATE |
|
CareEdge Ratings |
2.1% |
|
Union Bank of India |
2.1% |
|
India Ratings and Research |
2.2% |
|
ICICI Securities Primary Dealership |
2.3% |
|
STCI Primary Dealer |
2.4% |
|
Acuite Ratings and Research |
2.46% |
|
ICRA |
2.5% |
|
Nomura |
2.5% |
|
Sunidhi Securities |
2.55% |
|
Nirmal Bang Institutional Equities |
2.7% |
End
IST, or Indian Standard Time, is five-and-a-half hours ahead of GMT
Edited by Akul Nishant Akhoury
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