India's WPI inflation rises to 0.83% in December from -0.32% in November 

India's wholesale price inflation, measured by the Wholesale Price Index (WPI), rose to 0.83% in December 2025 from a contraction of 0.32% in November, data released by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry on Wednesday showed.    

The government attributes the positive rate of inflation to an increase in prices of other manufacturing, minerals, manufacture of machinery and equipment, manufacture of food products, and textiles, etc.   

Unlike the Consumer Price Index (CPI), which tracks prices of goods and services purchased by consumers, WPI tracks factory gate prices before retail prices. For November, India's WPI-based inflation came in at -0.32%.   

The Ministry of Commerce and Industry releases the WPI. Under the index, commodities are categorised into three groups — primary articles (which are further divided into food and non-food articles), fuel and power and manufactured products, and the base year for the index is 2011-12.   

Check the prices of commodities

Food prices in December rose slightly, with the rate of inflation rising 0% in December from -2.60% in November.

The prices of non-food articles (2.76%), minerals (1.62%), food articles (0.88%), electricity (4.46%), coal (0.66%), and mineral oils (0.07%) increased in December 2025 as compared to November 2025. On the other hand, prices of crude petroleum and natural gas (-0.45%) decreased as compared to the preceding month.   

Of the 22 National Industrial Classification two-digit groups for manufactured products, 13 groups witnessed an increase in prices, whereas eight groups witnessed a decrease. One group witnessed no change in prices.  

Other products see increase in prices

Other manufacturing, basic metals, chemicals and chemical products, textiles, and other non-metallic mineral products, etc, witnessed a month-over-month increase in prices. Manufacture of rubber and plastics products; food products; computer, electronic and optical products; paper and paper products and beverages, etc, reported a decrease in prices. 

According to the release, the WPI for December 2025 has been compiled based on a weighted response rate of 82.7% while the final index for October 2025 reflects a higher weighted response rate of 93.7%. The provisional WPI figures are subject to revision in line with the index’s revision policy.   

Expert view on WPI inflation

Rahul Agrawal, Senior Economist at ICRA Ltd, said wholesale inflation rebounded to 0.8% in December 2025 after two months in deflation, coming in higher than ICRA’s expectation of 0.4%. "The rise was largely driven by food prices, with the WPI food index turning flat year-on-year after a 2.6% contraction in November, accounting for 81 basis points of the 115-basis-point increase in headline inflation. The uptick narrowed the gap between CPI and WPI inflation to 50 basis points in December from 100 basis points in November," he said.

According to Agrawal, core WPI inflation, excluding food and covering manufactured products, rose to a 34-month high of 2.0% from 1.5% in November. On a sequential basis, the core index increased 0.5% in December, the sharpest rise in 19 months, reflecting higher global commodity prices and the depreciation of the rupee, which raised import costs.

Looking ahead, ICRA expects WPI food inflation to firm further in January 2026 due to an unfavourable base, while rising global commodity prices—led by gains in precious metals and some industrial metals—are likely to add to inflationary pressures, despite cooling oil prices.

Meanwhile, India's retail inflation, measured by the CPI, rose to 1.66% in December 2025, up from 0.71% in November. The rise in inflation was mainly due to higher prices of items such as personal care products, meat and fish, eggs, spices, sugar, and confectionery.