India’s wholesale inflation touches highest in three decades

India’s wholesale inflation quickened to the fastest pace in three decades on input costs fueled by high commodity prices and supply constraints.

Wholesale prices rose 14.2 per cent in November from a year earlier, data released by the commerce ministry showed on Tuesday. That’s faster than the median estimate of an about 12 per cent gain in a Bloomberg survey of 19 economists, and is the highest level since December 1991 when the print came in at 14.3 per cent.

Factory-gate inflation has stayed in double digits this financial year that began in April as companies pay more for raw materials amid a rally in global commodity prices and a supply crunch.

The spike “has come as a shock” said Aditi Nayar, chief economist at ICRA Ltd, the Indian unit of Moody’s Investors Service. Most non-core categories displayed “an inflation rate that was much steeper than expected”, she said.