New Delhi. The Wholesale Price Index (WPI) based inflation rate in India stood at 1.81 percent on an annual basis in January. This information was given by the Commerce and Industry Minister on Monday. The official statement said that the reason for the increase in inflation in January is the increase in the prices of basic metals and the increase in the prices of manufacturing and non-food products, food items and textiles.
The food index, which includes ‘food items’ from the primary goods group and ‘food products’ from the manufactured products group, has declined from 196.0 in December 2025 to 194.2 in January 2026. The wholesale inflation rate increased to 1.41 percent in January compared to the same month last year.
The manufacturing group has a weightage of 64.23 per cent in the WPI, and the index increased by 1.3 per cent during the month. Of the 22 manufactured products, 19 groups saw an increase in prices, while three groups saw a decline. Important groups whose prices increased month-on-month included basic metal manufacture, food products, textiles, other manufacturing and electrical equipment.
The commodities whose prices have declined include manufactured drugs, medicinal chemicals and botanical products, machinery and equipment and furniture, whose prices have declined in January 2026 as compared to December 2025. The retail inflation rate in India based on All India Consumer Price Index (CPI) was 2.75 percent on an annual basis in January 2026.
These are the first figures of retail inflation rate after the change in base year. The base year has been changed by the government to 2024, which was earlier 2012. Retail inflation rate in December was 1.33 percent. However, this was based on the old base year 2012.
According to data from the Ministry of Statistics and Program Implementation, retail inflation in rural areas stood at 2.73 percent and in urban areas it was 2.77 percent. At the same time, the food inflation rate in January was 2.13 percent. It was 1.96 percent in rural areas and 2.44 percent in urban areas.
Comments are closed.