Wholesale inflation: the four highest months since September 2022

The essentials

What the September figure would be the highest since

Each bar is a month that a September figure would have to pass. August 2026 stands at 9.92 per cent. June 2026 reached 9.97 per cent, September 2022 reached 10.55 per cent, and August 2022 reached 12.48 per cent.

Eight months of 2026

The all-commodities rate was 1.19 per cent in January 2026 and 9.92 per cent in August. The rate for manufactured products, which carry 63.13 per cent of the index, rose in every month of 2026, from 2.82 per cent in January to 8.37 per cent in August. The index itself rose from 101.9 in December 2025 to 110.8 in August 2026, so wholesale prices rose 8.73 per cent in eight months.

Fuel and power rose fastest

On the OEA's index, fuel and power rose 22.93 per cent in the year to August 2026, more than twice the all-commodities rate. Manufactured products rose 8.37 per cent, primary articles 7.76 per cent and the food index 7.05 per cent.

Inside fuel and power, mineral oils rose 38.48 per cent, and they carry 8.19 per cent of the index.

The OEA's release says that six groups "have been major drivers of WPI inflation in August 2026". In its own words they are "Mineral Oils (containing Petroleum Products)", "Food Articles", "Manufacture of Food Products", "Manufacture of Basic Metals", "Non-Food Articles" and "Manufacture of Chemicals and Chemical Products".

Source: OEA, WPI monthly index, base 2022-23 ↗; OEA, WPI press release of 14 September 2026 ↗.

The items that rose most

Among the items that carry at least 0.15 per cent of the index, these twelve rose most in the year to August 2026. Aviation turbine fuel rose 68.53 per cent, while onion rose 65.10 per cent.

Nearly two thirds of the basket rose more than 4 per cent

Worked out from the OEA's own item indices and weights, items carrying 64.88 per cent of the weight of all the items the OEA priced in both August 2025 and August 2026 rose more than 4 per cent over that year. In the year to August 2025, the same share was 19.59 per cent.

The first-sale price, a year on

Fuel and power that sold for Rs 1,00,000 at first sale in August 2025, in the same mix as the OEA's fuel and power index, sold for Rs 1,22,930 in August 2026, at the OEA's published rate of 22.93 per cent for that index. Goods in the mix of the whole index that sold for Rs 1,00,000 sold for Rs 1,09,920, at the all-commodities rate of 9.92 per cent, and goods in the mix of the food index sold for Rs 1,07,050, at its rate of 7.05 per cent.

On the Government's own index, wholesale inflation went from 1.19 per cent in January 2026 to 9.92 per cent in August, and items carrying nearly two thirds of its weight rose more than 4 per cent in the year to August.

Terms, explained

Wholesale Price Index

The Office of the Economic Adviser (OEA), in the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, publishes the Wholesale Price Index each month. Its metadata for the index on the 2022-23 base describes it as "a measure of average change in the wholesale prices of commodities first stage or factory gate transaction". The same metadata says that the OEA tracks the "ex-factory price for manufactured products, ex-mine prices for minerals, ex-storage/ex-bottling price for mineral oils and Agri-market (mandi) price for agricultural commodities", which means the price at the first sale, before goods reach a shop. The rate of inflation is how much higher the index is than in the same month a year before.

Rate of inflation

The percentage by which the index is higher than in the same month a year before. A rate of 9.92 per cent means that goods in the index's mix that sold for Rs 100 at first sale a year ago sold for Rs 109.92.

Major groups

The index has three major groups. Primary articles, which include food grains, vegetables and minerals, carry 22.76 per cent of its weight. Fuel and power carries 14.11 per cent, while manufactured products carry 63.13 per cent.

WPI food index

The OEA's food index joins the food articles in primary articles with the food products in manufactured products. Its weight is 24.99 per cent, as the OEA's release prints it.

Base year

The year whose prices are set at 100. The headline series is on the 2022-23 base from April 2024, and it is on the 2011-12 base before that.

Provisional and final

The OEA marks the latest two months provisional, and it publishes the final figure for each month two months later.

A run of rises

The number of months in a row in which the published rate was higher than in the month before.

Downloads for readers and the press

Sources & method

The OEA publishes the Wholesale Price Index each month, in a press release and in a workbook of monthly indices. This brief reads its release of 14 September 2026, its workbooks on the 2022-23 and 2011-12 bases, and the releases that print the final rates of 2022. To get the rate of inflation, divide the index by the index of twelve months earlier and subtract one. The OEA does this with indices printed to one decimal place, and so does this brief.

The headline series is on the 2022-23 base from April 2024, and on the 2011-12 base before that. The 2011-12 series stops at April 2026. The lowest of the four months, July 2026 at 9.78 per cent, is 1.11 points above the highest month from October 2022 to April 2026 on the headline series, which was October 2022 at 8.67 per cent, and 1.09 points above the highest on the 2011-12 series, which was April 2026 at 8.69 per cent. For the comparison to fail, the 2022-23 series would have to run more than a point above the 2011-12 series, and in the 25 months both series printed a rate, from April 2024 to April 2026, it ran at most 0.06 points above it.

A run of rises counts the months in a row in which the published rate was higher than in the month before. The runs of the food index and of manufactured products lie wholly on the 2022-23 base.

The share of the basket counts the OEA's weight for every item whose index rose more than 4 per cent over the same month a year earlier, and divides it by the weight of all items printed in both months, which is 99.59 of the index's 100. It is this brief's arithmetic on the OEA's item indices and weights.

1. OEA, WPI press release of 14 September 2026 ↗.
2. OEA, WPI monthly index, base 2022-23 ↗.
3. OEA, WPI monthly index, base 2011-12, file of 15 July 2026 ↗.
4. OEA, metadata of the WPI and PPIs, base 2022-23 ↗.
5. OEA, WPI press release of 16 January 2023 ↗.
6. OEA, WPI press release of 14 December 2022 ↗.