Onions, Milk Costlier As WPI Inflation Rises To 2.93% in February

The increase was due to the hardening of prices of primary articles, fuel and power.

Inflation based on wholesale prices rose to 2.93 percent in February 

(Photo: Reuters)

Inflation based on wholesale prices rose to 2.93 percent in February over the previous month due to the hardening of prices of primary articles, fuel and power, according to government data released Thursday.

The Wholesale Price Index (WPI) based inflation stood at 2.76 percent in January 2019. WPI inflation stood at 2.74 percent during February 2018.

Inflation of primary articles, which includes kitchen essentials like potato, onion, fruits, and milk, increased to 4.84 percent during the month, as against 3.54 in January, the data revealed.

The WPI data further revealed that wholesale-based price inflation for 'fuel and power' segment increased to 2.23 percent in February as against 1.85 percent in January 2019.

The Reserve Bank of India, which mainly factors in retail inflation based Consumer Price Index (CPI), had cut the key lending rate by 0.25 percent in February.