Wholesale price-based inflation rose for the second consecutive month to 3.18% in March on costlier food and fuel, government data released on Monday showed.

The Wholesale Price Index (WPI) based inflation was at 2.93% in February. It was 2.74% in March 2018.

Inflation in food articles hardened with steep rise in prices of vegetables during March 2019.

Vegetables inflation was at 28.13% in March, up from 6.82% in the previous month. However, inflation in potato cooled substantially to 1.30 per cent, from 23.40 per cent in February.

Inflation in food articles basket was 5.68% during March.

Inflation in ‘Fuel and power’ category also spiked to 5.41%, from 2.23% in February.

The Reserve Bank, which mainly factors in retail inflation for monetary policy decision, had earlier this month cut interest rates by 0.25 per cent.

Retail inflation accelerated to 2.86% in March from 2.57% a month ago, data released last week showed.

For April-September period, the RBI has projected retail inflation at 2.9-3%, mainly due to lower food and fuel prices as well as expectation of a normal monsoon.