New Delhi, May 18 -- The recent Rs 3 hike in petrol and diesel prices, announced after the Prime Minister's national exhortation for austerity, was widely anticipated, according to a research report by Systematix. It stated that the hike is almost "certainly the beginning of a series of hikes, not the end of one."

The report warned that "WPI inflation crossing the 10% mark is not a tail risk; it is a plausible and near-term base case."

It noted that retail CPI inflation is poised to catch up to the surge in wholesale momentum. The April 2026 inflation data leaves little room for optimism as "wholesale price index (WPI) inflation surges to a 42-month high of 8.3 per cent, with the fuel and power segment skyrocketing to 24.71 per cent." ...