Wholesale inflation skyrockets to 2.59 per cent in Dec

New Delhi, Jan 14: India's wholesale inflation has skyrocketed to 2.59 per cent in December as against 0.58 per cent in November due to increase in prices of food articles like onion and potato, government data showed on Tuesday.

The annual inflation, based on monthly wholesale price index (WPI), was at 3.46% during the same month a year ago (December 2018).

"Build up inflation rate in the financial year so far was 2.42 per cent compared to a build up rate of 2.92 per cent in the corresponding period of the previous year," the Ministry of Commerce and Industry said in its review of 'Index Numbers of Wholesale Price in India' for December.

The rate of price rise for food articles rose to 13.12% during December as against 11% a month earlier, while for non-food articles it rose nearly four-fold to 7.72% from 1.93% in November, showed the data released by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry on Tuesday.

Among food articles, vegetable prices surged by 69.69% mainly on account of onions, which witnessed 455.83% jump in prices, followed by potato at 44.97%.

The consumer price index based retail inflation, as per data released on Monday, spiked to over a 5-year high of 7.35% in December due to costlier food products.