India's wholesale price inflation marginally up in December

New Delhi: Even as vegetable prices plummeted 33 per cent, India's annual inflation based on wholesale prices rose marginally to 3.39 percent in December 2016 from 3.15 per cent for the month before, due to hardening of manufactured products and fuel prices. As per data on wholesale price index released by the Central Statistics Office (CSO), the inflation for food articles was (-) 0.70 percent against 1.54 percent in November. For fuels, it was 8.65 per cent against 7.07 per cent, and for manufactures products, it was 3.67 per cent against 3.20 per cent. The rise in the Index of Industrial Production (IIP) which was aided by a positive base effect, with industrial production having contracted 3.41 per cent during December, an year ago. In November, manufacturing grew at 5.5 per cent against a contraction of 4.6 per cent a month ago, while growth in mining output and electricity generation also picked up to grow at 3.9 per cent and 8.9 per cent respectively.