Fuelled by rising prices of food articles, especially vegetables, the wholesale inflation rose to a 13-month high of 1.26 per cent in April.
This comes amid expectations of RBI holding interest rates in the policy review next month.
Inflation in food articles rose to 7.74 per cent in April as against 6.88 per cent in March. In the fuel and power basket, inflation stood at 1.38 per cent in April, up from (-)0.77 per cent in the previous month.
The wholesale price index (WPI) based inflation has been rising for two months in a row. It was 0.20 per cent in February and 0.53 per cent in March. WPI inflation was 0.79 per cent in April last year.
The April WPI print is at a 13-month high. The last high was seen in March 2023, when inflation was 1.41 per cent.
"Positive rate of inflation in April 2024 is primarily due to increase in prices of food articles, electricity, crude petroleum and natural gas, manufacture of food products, other manufacturing etc," Ministry of Commerce & Industry said in a statement on Tuesday.
In the food articles basket, vegetables inflation was 23.60 per cent in April, up from 19.52 per cent in the previous month.
Likewise, inflation in potato jumped to 71.97 per cent in April from 52.96 per cent in March. In onion, it was 59.75 per cent in April, versus 56.99 per cent in the previous month.
Experts believe that inflation in food articles is expected to rationalise by Sept-Oct as many of the kharif crops will be entering the mandis, supplementing the existing supply.
The rise in April WPI is in contrast to the retail inflation data for the month. RBI mainly takes into account retail inflation while framing monetary policy. Retail inflation eased to 11-month low of 4.83 per cent in April.
RBI last month kept interest rate unchanged for seventh time in a row and said that it remains vigilant towards upside risks to food inflation. The next meeting of the interest rate setting panel of RBI is scheduled for June 5-7.