Climbing wheat prices take cereal inflation to a high of 16.12% in Jan

Some delay in offloading central wheat stocks causes spike

As the government took time to offload the central pool of wheat stocks, retail price inflation relating to the foodgrain jumped to an all-time high of 25 per cent in the new series in January.

This led to cereal inflation rising to 16.12 per cent in the month from 13.79 per cent in December.

Wholesale price index-based (WPI-based) inflation in wheat closely followed its retail counterpart at 23.63 per cent in January as against 20.72 per cent in the previous month and cereal inflation at 15.46 per cent compared to 14 per cent.

Rice prices were also high due to strong demand both