April WPI food inflation slows to 3.60%: Official data

New Delhi: India's annual WPI Food Index eased to 3.60 per cent in April from a rise of 5.49 per cent in March, official data showed on Thursday.

However, the Centre did not release the complete set of WPI figures for April due to the Covid-19 outbreak and its impact on data collection.

In a note, the Office of Economic Adviser, Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade said: "In view of the limited transactions of products in the wholesale market in the month of April 2020, due to spread of Covid-19 pandemic, it has been decided to release the Price Movement of selected Sub-groups/Groups of WPI, following the principles of adequacy.

"All Commodities of WPI could not be computed for April-2020 due to non-availability of manufactured product group index."

On a sequential basis, the expenses on primary articles, which constitute 22.62 per cent of the WPI's total weightage, declined (-) 0.7 per cent from 3.72 per cent in March.

"The index for this major group declined in April 20 by (-0.9 per cent) to 138.2 (P) from 139.5 (P) for the previous month. Prices of Minerals (2.3 pe r cent), Food Articles (0.7 per cent) and Non Food Articles (0.1 per cent) increased whereas prices of Crude Petroleum & Natural Gas (-24.7 per cent) declined as compared to the previous month." (IANS)

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