India's wholesale price inflation eased to 2.31% in January 2025, primarily due to a decline in food prices, particularly vegetables, according to government data released on Friday, February 14, 2025. In December 2024, the Wholesale Price Index (WPI) inflation stood at 2.37%, while it was significantly lower at 0.33% in January 2024.
Inflation in food items saw a notable decline, dropping to 5.88% in January from 8.47% in December 2024. Vegetable prices moderated substantially, with inflation falling to 8.35% from a high of 28.65% in December. However, some food items continued to witness sharp price increases. Potato inflation remained high at 74.28%, while onion prices surged by 28.33% in January.
In the fuel and power category, deflation stood at 2.78% in January, improving slightly from a deflation of 3.79% in December. Manufactured product inflation was recorded at 2.51%, compared to 2.14% in the previous month.
Retail inflation data, released earlier, showed that Consumer Price Index (CPI)-based inflation eased to a five-month low of 4.31% in January, also driven by lower food prices. The positive rate of WPI inflation in January 2025 was attributed to rising prices in manufactured food products, food articles, non-food articles, textiles, and other manufacturing sectors.
The month-over-month WPI change for January 2025 stood at (-) 0.45% compared to December 2024. The Primary Articles Index decreased by 2.01% to 189.9 in January from 193.8 in December. Meanwhile, the Fuel & Power Index increased by 0.47% to 150.6, and the Manufactured Products Index rose slightly by 0.14% to 143.2.
The WPI Food Index, which includes both food articles and manufactured food products, declined from 195.9 in December 2024 to 191.4 in January 2025. The annual inflation rate for the WPI Food Index also dropped from 8.89% in December to 7.47% in January.
