NEW DELHI: Wholesale price inflation swung to positive territory in Aug after contracting for two months in a row as food and manufactured product prices inched up. Data released by the commerce and industry ministry on Monday showed inflation, as measured by the wholesale price index (WPI), rose to a four-month high of 0.5% in Aug from -0.6% in July.The positive rate of inflation in Aug is primarily due to an increase in prices of food products, other manufacturing, non-food articles, other non-metallic mineral products, and other transport equipment. “Food items accounted for as much as 73 basis points of the 110 basis points uptick in the headline WPI print between Aug and July. This was followed by core WPI (non-food manufactured), which added 27 basis points to the headline print, with the inflation in the same rising to a five-month high of 1.6% in Aug,” said Rahul Agrawal of Icra.
