October inflation eases to 7.45%

After a series of negative data on a day before Diwali, inflation today showed some signs of easing. The Wholesale Price index-based inflation stood at 7.45% in October 2012, against 9.87% in the corresponding month of the previous year.

The annual rate of inflation stood at 7.81% in September 2012. Build up inflation in the financial year so far was 4.78% compared to a build-up of 5.02% in the corresponding period of the previous year, said the Ministry of Commerce & Industry in a statement today.

Fuel prices rose by 0.8% and prices of manufactured products increased by 0.1%.

The index for primary articles declined by 0.2%.  The index for ‘Food Articles’  group declined by 0.1 percent due to lower prices of bajra, fish-marine, urad, arhar, gram, maize and poultry chicken and barley and condiments & spices. However, prices of ragi, fish-inland, moong, coffee and mutton and tea, milk and rice moved up.

The index for ‘Non-Food Articles’ group declined by 2.3%, while the index for ‘Minerals’ group rose by 2.4%.