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.
