New Delhi

India’s wholesale price inflation rose for the fifth consecutive month to 3.88 per cent in March, driven by a sharp increase in prices of fuel, power and manufactured goods amid the West Asia crisis, according to government data released on Wednesday.

The Wholesale Price Index-based inflation rate stood at 2.13 per cent in February and 2.25 per cent in March last year.

The Ministry of Commerce and Industry said the positive inflation rate in March was mainly due to higher prices of crude petroleum and natural gas, non-food articles, basic metals, food articles and other manufactured products.

Inflation in the fuel and power basket rose to 1.05 per cent in March, compared with a deflation of 3.78 per cent in February.

Crude petroleum inflation surged to 51.57 per cent during March, against a deflation of 1.29 per cent in the previous month.

Manufactured products inflation also increased to 3.39 per cent in March from 2.92 per cent in February.

However, the rise in food article prices moderated to 1.90 per cent in March from 2.19 per cent in February.

Vegetable inflation eased to 1.45 per cent in March, down from 4.73 per cent in February.

The report comes amid rising global crude prices linked to tensions in West Asia following the US-Israel attack on Iran. Crude oil prices have reportedly risen more than 50 per cent since the crisis began on February 28.

On March 26, the government cut excise duty by Rs 10 per litre on petrol and diesel to prevent higher international oil prices from being passed on to consumers.

Meanwhile, retail inflation based on the Consumer Price Index rose to 3.4 per cent in March from 3.21 per cent in February.

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The Reserve Bank of India, which primarily tracks retail inflation for monetary policy decisions, kept interest rates unchanged in its first bi-monthly policy review earlier this month.