WPI inflation in negative for second month at (-) 0.32% in Nov

New Delhi: Wholesale price inflation stayed in the negative for the second consecutive month in November at (-) 0.32 percent, even though there was an uptick in prices of food articles like pulses and vegetables on a month-on-month basis, government data showed on Monday.

Wholesale Price Index (WPI)-based inflation was at (-) 1.21 percent in October and 2.16 percent in November last year.

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However, on an annual basis, the negative rate of inflation during November was primarily due to decrease in prices of food articles, mineral oils, crude petroleum & natural gas, manufacture of basic metals and electricity, the industry ministry said in a statement.

Food articles continued to witness deflation for the past eight months, beginning in April. It narrowed sharply in November at 4.16 percent, from 8.31 percent in October.

In vegetables, deflation was 20.23 percent in November, as against 34.97 percent in October.

In pulses, deflation was at 15.21 percent in November, while in potato and onion it was 36.14 percent and 64.70 percent, respectively.

In the case of manufactured products, inflation eased to 1.33 percent in November, as against 1.54 percent in October.

Fuel and power witnessed a negative inflation or deflation of 2.27 percent, as against 2.55 percent in October.

ICRA Chief Economist Aditi Nayar said the WPI deflation narrowed faster than expected to 0.3 percent in November 2025, from 1.2 percent in October 2025, reflecting the base effect, weakening INR and rising prices of some commodities.

"With the further depreciation in the INR, hardening commodity prices, and unseasonal rise in vegetable prices, and despite softening crude oil, we expect the WPI to move into a year-on-year inflation of around 0.5 percent in December 2025," Nayar said.

Data released last week showed CPI inched up to 0.71 percent in November, from a record low of 0.25 percent, driven by rising food prices.

Low inflation in the current fiscal year has given the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) room to cut policy interest rates by 1.25 percentage points.

The Reserve Bank, earlier this month, significantly lowered the inflation projection for the current fiscal to 2 percent from 2.6 percent estimated earlier, as the economy continues to witness rapid disinflation.

The RBI mainly tracks retail inflation for deciding on benchmark interest rates.

Earlier this month, the RBI had cut key policy interest rates by 25 bps to 5.25 percent, saying that the Indian economy is in a "rare Goldilocks period" marked by high growth and low inflation.

The Reserve Bank last week raised the FY26 GDP growth projection to 7.3 percent, from its earlier estimate of 6.8 percent. India recorded an 8.2 percent growth in the September quarter, and 7.8 percent in the June quarter.

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