WPI Inflation Rises to 11.39% in September 2026 as Fuel and Power Climbs 25.85%

Wholesale price inflation in India rose to 11.39% in September 2026, up from 9.92% in August, according to the provisional Wholesale Price Index release issued by the Office of the Economic Adviser, Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade, Ministry of Commerce and Industry, on 14 October 2026. The All Commodities index (base year 2022-23) moved to 112.5 from 110.8 in a single month, and the release names mineral oils, food articles, crude petroleum and natural gas, coal and lignite, basic metals, chemicals, textiles, rubber and plastic products and electrical equipment as the groups that pushed the rate up.

The same release fixes the final figure for July 2026 at 9.78%, unchanged from the provisional estimate, with the July index holding at 110.0. September is the first double-digit print of the financial year: month-wise wholesale inflation ran at 8.36% in April, 9.88% in May, 9.97% in June, 9.78% in July and 9.92% in August before the jump to 11.39%. The cumulative April to September index for FY 2026-27 is 110.4 against 100.5 for the same six months of FY 2025-26, which the release puts at a cumulative rate of 9.85%. Business Standard's report on the release notes that the comparable April to September 2025 figure was a decline of 0.20%, which shows how quickly the wholesale picture has reversed within a year.

Group-wise WPI inflation for September 2026

The three major groups and the food index all accelerated between August and September. The table below carries the weights, index values and year-on-year rates as printed in the release.

Manufactured products carry 63.13% of the index, so the move from 8.37% to 9.76% in that group accounts for the largest share of the headline change even though fuel and power posts the most striking rate.

Fuel and power at 25.85%: crude petroleum up 57.32%

Within fuel and power, crude petroleum and natural gas inflation rose to 57.32% in September from 34.41% in August, with the sub-group index jumping from 120.3 to 141.9 in one month. Mineral oils, which carry a weight of 8.19 out of 100 in the All Commodities index and are the heaviest item inside the group, rose 40.02% year on year against 38.48% in August. Coal and lignite moved from 1.57% to 9.31%. Electricity remains the only sub-group in deflation, at minus 0.43% compared with minus 1.73% a month earlier.

Among primary articles, food articles (weight 15.98) accelerated from 5.67% to 8.14%, and the sub-group index rose from 119.3 to 122.2. Non-food articles eased from 14.79% to 10.28%, and minerals went from 8.24% to 9.51%. The WPI Food Index, which combines food articles with manufactured food products, stood at 8.66%; manufactured food products on their own softened slightly to 9.44% from 9.65%.

Basic metals and chemicals lead manufactured products

The manufactured products group shows broad-based pressure rather than a single outlier. Basic metals rose to 16.96% from 10.88%, with the index up from 100.9 to 106.2 in the month. Chemicals and chemical products reached 16.74% from 14.30%. Textiles climbed to 13.85% from 12.63%, rubber and plastic products to 13.47% from 11.18%, and electrical equipment to 11.93% from 11.11%. Computer, electronic and optical products turned positive at 4.00% after minus 0.47% in August, although that sub-group's index actually slipped from 104.8 to 104.1, so the swing reflects a weaker base a year earlier rather than a price rise in September itself.

Output PPI at 112.5 and trial Input PPI at 106.1

The release also carries the Output Producer Price Index on the same 2022-23 base. All Commodities Output PPI for September 2026 stands at 112.5 against 110.8 in August, with agriculture, forestry and fishing at 118.7 (116.5 in August), mining and quarrying at 129.2 (122.0), manufactured products at 111.0 (109.7) and electricity at 92.0 (90.9). The final Output PPI for July 2026 is 109.9, unchanged from the provisional figure.

The trial Input PPI for the manufacturing sector, which the Office of the Economic Adviser's price index download page describes as published on an experimental basis, came in at 106.1 for September against 104.2 in August, while July was revised down from 105.9 to 105.5 on finalisation. At the NIC two-digit industry level, coke and refined petroleum products moved from 86.7 to 94.7 in a single month, chemicals and chemical products from 110.8 to 113.4, basic metals from 101.8 to 103.4, food products from 114.7 to 115.3 and electrical equipment from 118.7 to 120.2. For a cost accountant tracking material cost variances in refining, chemicals or metals, these are the industry input series that move earliest, and the September step-up in refined petroleum inputs is the largest in the table.

Using the September index in WPI-linked escalation clauses

Price variation clauses in EPC contracts, long-term supply agreements and many government works contracts reference the WPI All Commodities index or a specified sub-group index for a named month. Two points in the release matter for anyone certifying or checking such a claim. First, the September 2026 value of 112.5 is provisional and was compiled at a weighted response rate of 83.4%, whereas the final July 2026 value of 110.0 rests on a 98.97% response rate; the release follows a two-month cycle in which each month's final index accompanies the provisional release two months later, so September's final figure will come out alongside the provisional November numbers, two releases from now, and not on 16 November. A clause that specifies final indices cannot be settled on the September number yet. Second, the base year of the series is 2022-23, so a clause drafted against the older series needs a linking factor before the two sets of index values can be compared.

As an illustration of the arithmetic, take a supply contract where 70% of the contract price is escalable against the WPI All Commodities index and the base month is September 2025. The release does not print the September 2025 index, but it follows from the year-on-year rate: 112.5 divided by 1.1139 gives 101.0. Escalation for a bill raised on September 2026 prices is therefore 0.70 multiplied by (112.5 minus 101.0) divided by 101.0, which is 0.70 multiplied by 11.39%, or 7.97%. On a quarterly invoice of ₹10,00,00,000, the escalation claim works out to about ₹79,70,000, subject to the clause's rounding and the provisional-versus-final condition described above. Where the clause uses a sub-group such as basic metals, the same calculation runs on that index (106.2 for September 2026) rather than the headline.

WPI at 11.39% against CPI at 5.54%

Retail inflation for the same month was 5.54%, as set out in the September 2026 CPI release covered earlier on CA Samaaj, which also records the Monetary Policy Committee's 7 October decision to raise the repo rate by 25 basis points to 5.50% with a stance of calibrated tightening. The gap of nearly six percentage points between wholesale and retail inflation is unusually wide. Fuel, metals and chemicals feed into retail prices with a lag, and the WPI has no services component, so the two series are not expected to match; even so, a wedge of this size means that a large part of the rise in producer costs has not yet reached consumer prices. Finance teams finalising second-half budgets, and auditors reviewing inventory valuation and onerous-contract assessments at the September quarter end, will want to look at the sub-group indices for their own inputs rather than the headline rate.

The provisional WPI, Output PPI and trial Input PPI for October 2026 are scheduled for release on Monday, 16 November 2026. Item-wise indices and the supply-and-use-table category breakdowns for the 2022-23 series are available through the Office of the Economic Adviser's website.

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