Fed’s Caution
The US Federal Reserve’s decision to lower its benchmark interest rate to a range of 4.25-4.50 per cent marks a turning point in its monetary policy.
Higher prices of primary goods along with food articles and fuel costs stiffened India’s October 2021 wholesale inflation on a sequential and year-on-year basis.
Accordingly, the annual rate of inflation, based on wholesale prices, rose to 12.54 per cent last month from 10.66 per cent in September.
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Similarly, on a YoY basis, the Wholesale Price Index (WPI) data furnished by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry has risen exponentially over October 2021, when it stood at 1.31 per cent.
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“The high rate of inflation in October 2021 is primarily due to rise in prices of mineral oils, basic metals, food products, crude petroleum and natural gas, chemicals and chemical products, etc., as compared to the corresponding month of the previous year,” the ministry said in its review of ‘Index Numbers of Wholesale Price in India’ for October.
“The month over month change in WPI index for the month of October, 2021 (as compared to September, 2021) was 2.28 per cent.”
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