INVC NEWS
New Delhi : The Indian public was already suffering from inflation, now the prices of potato and onion have broken the back of the public, wholesale onion prices had increased by 29.22 percent in February, which increased by 56.99 percent in March. India may face a major shortage in onion supply till the harvest of the next Kharif crop. Meanwhile, the wholesale price index of potatoes rose by 52.96 per cent in March compared to 15.34 per cent in February. According to the data, in the month of March a year ago, wholesale prices of onion had declined by 36.83 percent and that of potato by 25.59 percent.
The positive rate of inflation in March, 2024 is mainly due to increase in prices of food articles, electricity, crude petroleum and natural gas, machinery and equipment and other manufacturing etc. Wholesale inflation in the crude petroleum and natural gas sector increased by 4.87 percent in March compared to a decline of 1.19 percent in the same month last year. At the same time, fuel and electricity inflation decreased by minus 0.77 percent in March.
The month-on-month change in the WPI index for the month of March, 2024 as compared to February, 2024 stood at 0.40 per cent. Wholesale food inflation rose to 4.7 percent in March after rising 4.1 percent year-on-year in February. At the same time, on a monthly basis, food inflation increased by 1.01 percent in March after increasing by 0.11 percent in February.
