According to government data issued on Monday, wholesale price inflation stayed negative for the second consecutive month in November, mostly as a result of lower costs for food items, mineral oils, natural gas and crude petroleum, basic metals, and electricity. Inflation based on the Wholesale Price Index decreased from 2.16% in November of last year to (-) 0.32% in November. Additionally, this was the fourth time in the previous six months that WPI had gone negative.
However, due to seasonal increases in the cost of several foods, the degree of deflation gradually shrank. October’s WPI was (-)1.21%. The report shows that the deflation in food items was 4.16% as opposed to 8.31% in October. Vegetable and fruit deflation was 20.23% and 0.91% in November, respectively, compared to 34.97% and 7.03% in October.
The “food articles” from the primary articles group and the “food product” from the manufactured goods group make up the food index (24.38% weight), which went from 192.0 in October to 195.0. According to the WPI food index, the year-over-year inflation rate rose from (-) 5.04% in October to (-) 2.60% in November.
According to figures issued by the National Statistics Office this week, increased food costs caused retail inflation to creep up to 0.71% in November from a historic low of 0.25%. Manufactured goods inflation decreased from 1.54% in October to 1.33% in November. At (-2.27)% in November compared to (-)2.55% in October, fuel and power continued to be negative. Compared to (-)6.18% in October, the main article inflation was (-)2.93% throughout the month.
