India’s wholesale prices rose 9.92% year-on-year in August 2026, edging up from 9.78% in July and slightly exceeding market expectations of 9.89%. This marked the fastest pace of wholesale inflation since September 2022, driven by stronger increases in fuel, manufacturing, and food prices.
Fuel inflation quickened to 22.93% in August from 20.05% in July, primarily reflecting sharper rises in mineral oil prices (38.48% vs 32.40% in July) and in crude petroleum and natural gas (34.41% vs 26.99%).
Food inflation also accelerated, reaching 7.05% in August from 6.65% in July, the highest level since January 2025. This was largely due to faster price increases for food articles (5.67% vs 5.44%), while non-food articles continued to show elevated inflation, though at a slower pace (14.79% vs 17.66%).
Manufacturing inflation picked up to 8.37% from 8.29%, its quickest rate since June 2022. The increase was led by higher inflation in chemicals and chemical products (14.30%), tobacco products (13.17%), textiles (12.63%), rubber and plastics (11.18%), and basic metals (10.88%).
