Wholesale price-based inflation rose at the fastest pace in eight months at 0.26 per cent in November mainly due to a sharp rise in food prices, after staying in the negative zone for the past seven months. It was at (-) 0.52 per cent in October. Food inflation rose to 8.18 per cent in November, from 2.53 per cent in October.
"Positive rate of inflation in November, 2023 is primarily due to increase in prices of food articles, minerals, machinery & equipment, computer, electronics & optical products, motor vehicles, other transport equipment and other manufacturing etc," a Commerce and Industry Ministry statement said.
Official data released earlier this week showed retail or consumer price based inflation rising at its fastest pace in three months at 5.55 per cent in November, driven by spike in food prices.
The RBI, in its bi-monthly monetary policy last week, held interest rates steady and flagged risks of rising food inflation in November and December.
The WPI data came two days after India's industrial production growth was shown to have accelerated to 16-month high of 11.7 per cent in October, mainly due to double-digit growth in manufacturing, power and mining sectors' output.
Factory output growth measured in terms of the Index of Industrial Production (IIP) had contracted by 4.1 per cent in October 2022. The previous high of IIP growth was recorded at 12.6 per cent in June 2022.