Wholesale price inflation (WPI) rose to (-) 0.32 per cent in November, driven by an uptick in prices of food articles like pulses and vegetables on a month-on-month basis, government data showed on Monday. WPI-based inflation was (-) 1.21 per cent in October and 2.16 per cent in November last year.
"Negative rate of inflation in November 2025 is primarily due to a decrease in prices of food articles, mineral oils, crude petroleum & natural gas, manufacture of basic metals and electricity, etc," the industry ministry said in a statement.
According to WPI data, deflation in food articles was 4.16 per cent in November as compared to 8.31 per cent in October. In vegetables, deflation was 20.23 per cent in November as against 34.97 per cent in October. In pulses, deflation was at 15.21 per cent in November, while in potato and onion it was 36.14 per cent and 64.70 per cent, respectively.
In the case of manufactured products, inflation eased to 1.33 per cent in November as against 1.54 per cent in October. Fuel and power witnessed a negative inflation or deflation of 2.27 per cent as against 2.55 per cent in October.
Data released last week showed that the Consumer Price Index (CPI) inched up to 0.71 per cent in November from a record low of 0.25 per cent, 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 per cent from 2.6 per cent 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 per cent, 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 per cent from its earlier estimate of 6.8 per cent. India recorded an 8.2 per cent growth in the September quarter, and 7.8 per cent in the June quarter.
Also read: India's CPI inflation to ease to 5.5% in Nov: Morgan Stanley
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