India’s annual rate of inflation – based on the monthly wholesale price index (WPI) – remained high in June, compared to May.

WPI inflation was 12.07% last month, following a record high of 12.94% in May this year.

"The high rate of inflation in June 2021 is primarily due to low base effect and rise in prices of mineral oils viz. petrol, diesel (HSD), naphtha, ATF, furnace oil etc, and manufactured products like basic metal, food products, chemical products etc as compared the corresponding month of the previous year," the Office of Economic Adviser, department for promotion of industry and internal trade, under the ministry of commerce and industry stated.

In addition, the official WPI for all commodities for June rose to 133.7 from the previous month’s reading of 132.7.

Regarding manufactured products, the index for June this year increased to 131.5 from 131.0 in May.

Moreover, the all-India inflation rate for the consumer price index (CPI) stood at a provisional 6.26% in June compared to a final 6.3% reading in May, as per the Central Statistics Office, ministry of statistics and programme implementation.

“The CPI inflation for June 2021 offered a modicum of relief, easing marginally to 6.26% from 6.3% in the previous month, despite a pickup in food inflation and rising retail fuel prices. However, it did remain above the upper threshold of the MPC’s 2-6% medium term target for the second month in a row, and exceeded our projection of 6.1%,” ICRA’s Chief Economist Aditi Nayar said.

“The month-on-month uptick in the CPI inflation eased to 0.6% in June 2021 as the phased unlocking commenced at the state level, from the sharp 1.6% in the previous month, adding heft to the argument that the latter was largely transitory.”