India's wholesale inflation rises to 11.39% in September, a series high

India's wholesale price inflation rose to 11.39% in September 2026 from 9.92% in August, according to provisional data from the Commerce and Industry Ministry released on Wednesday, October 14. Figures below are year-on-year unless stated.

The headline and the comparison

The Hindu reports that this is the highest reading in the new Wholesale Price Index series, which uses 2022-23 as its base year and has data from April 2024, and a 49-month high in the older series, with 2011-12 as the base year. It says that is the highest since August 2022 in the older series.

Mint reports that the overall index rose to 112.5 in September from 110.8 in August, and that cumulative inflation for April-September was 9.85%, against minus 0.20% in the same period a year earlier. The ministry retained the final July figure at 9.78%.

Where prices rose

According to Mint and The Hindu BusinessLine, the main groups moved as follows between August and September:

• Fuel and power: 25.85%, up from 22.93%.
• Manufactured products: 9.76%, up from 8.37%, a series high.
• Food index, covering food articles and manufactured food products: 8.66%, up from 7.05%.
• Food articles alone: 8.14%, up from 5.67%. The Hindu notes this was on a low base, as food article prices fell 6.8% in September 2025.
• Non-food articles: 10.28%, down from 14.79%.

Within these groups, Mint reports that mineral oils rose to 40.02% from 38.48%, and crude petroleum and natural gas to 57.32% from 34.41%. In manufactured goods, basic metals rose to 16.96% from 10.88% and chemicals to 16.74% from 14.30%. Electricity prices fell 0.43% year-on-year, after a 1.73% fall in August.

The ministry listed mineral oils, food articles, crude petroleum and natural gas, coal and lignite, basic metals, chemicals, textiles, rubber and plastic products, and electrical equipment as the main drivers, Mint and BusinessLine report.

Reasons given

The Hindu and BusinessLine link the rise since the start of this fiscal year to the war in West Asia and the resulting blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, through which most of India's imported crude passes. They report that this pushed up global crude and fertiliser costs, with effects on food and commodity prices.

Rahul Agrawal, principal economist at ICRA, said in The Hindu that non-food manufactured goods accounted for more than half of the 147-basis-point increase in the headline figure from August. He attributed this to the passing through of input cost pressures.

Related data

Retail inflation, released two days earlier, was 5.54% in September, up from 4.83% in August, according to Mint and BusinessLine. BusinessLine adds that the Reserve Bank of India's monetary policy committee raised its benchmark rate by 25 basis points to 5.50% the previous week.