Coal news and updates

March Wholesale Price Index inflation at (-) 0.85%

Wholesale Price Index (WPI) based inflation for March came in at (-) 0.85%, a further contraction on the previous month’s level of (-) 0.91%.

In March last year, the WPI had come in at (-) 2.33%.

For the month under review, manufactured products inflation — which accounts for 65% weightage in the WPI — grew 0.4%.

The WPI has remained in negative territory for the 17th straight month. The Reserve Bank of India is now focused on the consumer price index (CPI)-based inflation for its monetary policy actions.

The January WPI inflation has been revised lower to (-) 1.07% from the provisional estimate of (-) 0.90%.

Meanwhile, food inflation for March 2016 came in at 3.73%, higher than 3.35% in February. The latest food articles inflation print was much lower than 6.27% in the same month last year.

Vegetable prices contracted 2.26% in March as against an increase of 9.27% in March last year.

Both onions and fruits saw an easing of prices.

However, prices of pulses shot up by 34.45% in March 2016, higher than the 13.22% increase seen in the same month last year.

The inflation print in the fuel and power segment was (-) 8.30%.

Reacting to the latest WPI inflation numbers, ASSOCHAM President Sunil Kanoria highlighted that pulses have shown upward price pressure for the last six months. He suggested that policymakers should check and address this issue through supply side responses.