India’s wholesale price inflation rose to 11.39% in September 2026 from 9.92% in August, with prices of manufactured food products 9.44% higher than a year earlier, according to provisional data released on 14 October by the Office of the Economic Adviser in the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT). The Wholesale Price Index (WPI), on a 2022-23 base, stood at 112.5 against 110.8 in August.

The WPI food index, which carries a weight of 24.99% and combines food articles from the primary articles group with manufactured food products, rose 8.66% year on year, up from 7.05%. Food articles inflation accelerated to 8.14% from 5.67%. Manufactured food products eased slightly, to 9.44% from 9.65%, after rising every month from 4.72% in April. Manufactured beverages rose 1.44%.

Energy and materials outpace food

The sharpest increases were outside food. Fuel and power inflation was 25.85%, up from 22.93%. Within it, mineral oils rose 40.02%, crude petroleum and natural gas 57.32% and coal and lignite 9.31%, while electricity was 0.43% cheaper than a year earlier.

Among manufactured groups, rubber and plastic products rose 13.47%, chemicals and chemical products 16.74%, basic metals 16.96% and paper and paper products 5.15%.

A trial gauge of factory input costs

The release also carries DPIIT’s Output Producer Price Index and a trial Input Producer Price Index for manufacturing. The department says the trial input index is published on an experimental basis for March 2026 onwards so that it can examine data quality and receive feedback from users. For the manufacture of food products, the trial input index rose to 115.3 in September from 114.7 in August and 108.3 in April. The output index for the same industry stood at 117.7, against 117.6 in August and 111.0 in April. For beverages, the input index was 108.8 and the output index 106.0.

Averaged over April to September, the WPI food index was 6.10% higher than a year earlier, after falling 1.26% over the same months of 2025-26. Food articles swung from minus 4.28% to 5.18%. Manufactured food products had no such soft base: their cumulative rate was 4.84% last year and 7.73% this year.

The September index is provisional and was compiled with a weighted response rate of 83.4%, against 98.97% for July’s final index, which left July’s inflation unchanged at 9.78%. The release does not break out individual foods such as onion, pulses or edible oils; item-level data are published separately on the office’s website. October’s figures are due on 16 November.

The Reserve Bank of India’s Monetary Policy Committee, which raised the repo rate by 25 basis points to 5.50% on 7 October, said the pass-through of high energy and other commodity prices was still continuing, and that second-round effects are difficult to distinguish from the indirect impact of supply-side pressures on production costs through energy and other inputs. Globally, the FAO Food Price Index published on 2 October averaged 136.0 points in September, up 1.5% from August and 5.8% from a year earlier; cereal prices were 17.2% higher than a year earlier, while the sugar and vegetable oil indices rose 6.1% and 0.9% from August.

F&B Today’s reading

  • Analysis: For many packaged food and drink makers the cost problem now extends beyond the ingredient. Plastics, basic metals and fuel are rising faster than food articles, and these groups cover materials used in films, bottles and cans as well as the energy that runs the line. Bottled drinks, dairy, biscuits and snacks are likely to carry the heaviest exposure, even where a key crop has become cheaper.
  • Analysis: On the trial producer indices, food manufacturers’ output prices have moved broadly in step with their input costs since April. That balance is the thing to watch. If input prices keep climbing while retail food inflation already stands at 7.74%, as MoSPI reported on 12 October, the room to pass further costs on is likely to narrow.
  • Analysis: The base effect that flatters food articles is likely to fade in coming months, but manufactured food inflation is not a base story. Buyers negotiating annual supply contracts would be wise to treat the 9.44% figure as current pressure rather than a statistical echo of last year.
  • Analysis: The trial input index is experimental and September’s WPI rests on an 83.4% response rate, so revisions are possible. For now the trial series may work better as a benchmark in supplier conversations than as a contract escalation index.