The wholesale price-based inflation fell for the second consecutive month in January at 12.96 percent, which is a decline from 14.87 percent in November and 13.56 percent in December 2021. government data released on Monday showed.

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The high rate of inflation in January 2022 is primarily due to rise in prices of mineral oils, crude petroleum & natural gas, basic metals, chemicals and chemical products, food articles as compared the corresponding month of the previous year.

Inflation in food articles spiked to 10.33 percent in January 2022 from 9.56 percent in December 2021. Vegetable price rise rate jumped to 38.45 percent, against 31.56 percent in the previous month. In the food articles category, pulses, cereals and paddy witnessed a month-on-month price rise, while inflation in egg, meat and fish stood at 9.85 per cent and in potato and onion at (-)14.45 and (-)15.98 per cent, respectively.

WPI inflation has remained in double digits for the tenth consecutive month beginning April 2021. Wholsale inflation in January 2021 was at 2.51 percent.

"The high rate of inflation in January 2022 is primarily due to rise in prices of mineral oils, crude petroleum and natural gas, basic metals, chemicals and chemical products, food articles etc as compared the corresponding month of the previous year," the Commerce and Industry Ministry said in a statement. Inflation in manufactured items was 9.42 percent in January, compared to 10.62 percent in the previous month.

In fuel and power basket, the rate of price rise was 32.27 percent in January, a tad lower than 32.30 percent in December. The Reserve Bank last week kept its key repo rate, at which it lends short-term money to banks, unchanged for the tenth time in a row at 4 percent, to support growth as well as manage the inflationary pressures.

(Edited by : Bivekananda Biswas)

First Published:Feb 14, 2022 1:26 PM IST