NEW DELHI: Wholesale price inflation (WPI) jumped to an eight-year high in March propelled by a rise in fuel, manufactured products and metal prices, signalling the strengthening of inflationary pressures and posing a new challenge for policymakers and ruling out any interest rates cuts for now.

According to the official data released on Thursday inflation, as measured by the wholesale price index accelerated to 7.4 per cent in March, higher than the 27-month high of 4.2 per cent in February. This is the highest inflation rate recorded in the new data series. The previous high was 7.4 percent in October 2012. The sharp rise in March was also attributed to the low base as data for March 2020 was computed with a low response rate due to the nationwide lockdown.

The spike in WPI came against the backdrop of an increase in retail inflation, which jumped to a four-month high in March.

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