The wholesale price index (WPI) based inflation shot up to over 8-year high of 7.39 per cent in March on rising crude oil and metal prices. Also, the low base of March last year, when the data was computed with a low response rate due to the nationwide lockdown, contributed to the spike in inflation in March 2021.

Such a high level of WPI was last recorded in October 2012, when inflation was 7.4 per cent.  Inflation in food articles in March was 3.24 per cent as prices of pulses, fruits and paddy hardened.