Wholesale inflation for the month of January eased to a six-month low of 2.84% on cheaper food articles, even as vegetable prices continued to rule high.
Calculated on the basis of Wholesale Price Index (WPI), wholesale inflation was at 3.58% in December 2017 and 4.26% in January 2017.
WPI inflation at 2.84% in January is the lowest in six months. The previous lowest evel was recorded in July at 1.88%.
According to the government data released today, inflation on food articles slowed to 3% in January, from 4.72% in December 2017.
Inflation in vegetables witnessed some softening with annual inflation at 40.77% in January as against 56.46% in the previous month. Kitchen staple onion witnessed a whopping 193.89% price rise in January.
Pulses witnessed deflation at 30.43%, and the same for wheat and cereals was 6.94% and 1.98% respectively.
Prices of protein rich items eggs, meat and fish cooled by 0.37% while that of fruits rose 8.49% in January.
In the fuel and power segment, wholesale inflation rose to 4.08% in January, while it was 2.78% for manufactured items.
Data released earlier this week showed that retail inflation was at 5.07%. The Reserve Bank takes into account retail inflation while deciding on key policy rates.
{{/usCountry}}Data released earlier this week showed that retail inflation was at 5.07%. The Reserve Bank takes into account retail inflation while deciding on key policy rates.
{{/usCountry}}In its policy review last week, the RBI had kept key interest rate unchanged and estimated retail inflation to be 5.1 pc in the January-March quarter. For April-September, RBI projected inflation to be in the range of 5.1-5.6%.
Meanwhile, inflation for November has been revised upwards to 4.02% from the provisional estimate of 3.93% released earlier.