Lower food prices ease India's WPI to 5.09% in July

Lower prices of food items and primary goods decelerated the rise in India's annual rate of inflation based on wholesale prices to 5.09 per cent in July from 5.77 per cent in June, official data showed on Tuesday.

The data on Wholesale Price Index (WPI) furnished by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry showed that the rate of inflation had increased to 1.88 per cent during the corresponding month in 2017.

"Build up inflation rate in the financial year so far was 2.92 per cent compared to a build up rate of 0.62 per cent in the corresponding period of the previous year," the Ministry said in its review statement.

On a sequential basis, the expenses on primary articles, which constitute 22.62 per cent of the WPI's total weightage, inched up by 1.73 per cent, from an increase of 5.30 per cent in June 2018.

Similarly, the prices of food articles dipped. The category has a weightage of 15.26 per cent in the WPI index. It deflated by (-) 2.16 per cent from a rise of 1.80 per cent.

However, the cost of fuel and power category, which commands a 13.15 per cent weightage in the index, increased at a faster pace of 18.10 per cent from a growth of 16.18 per cent.

In addition, expenses on manufactured products registered a rise of 4.26 per cent from 4.17 per cent.

On a year-on-year (YoY) basis, onion prices soared higher by 38.82 per cent and for potatoes by 74.28 per cent.

In contrast, the overall vegetable prices in July declined by 14.07 per cent, against a rise of 22.01 per cent in the same month a year ago.

Further, the data revealed that wheat became dearer by 6.31 per cent on a YoY basis and the prices of pulses came down by 17.03 per cent, but paddy became expensive by 3.96 per cent.

The prices of protein-based food items such as eggs, meat and fish became marginally higher by 0.87 per cent during the month.

The sub-category of manufactured food products registered a rise of 1.74 per cent.

Fuel-wise, the price of high-speed diesel rose by 22.84 per cent on a YoY basis while that of petrol climbed by 20.75 per cent and LPG by 31.68 per cent.

--IANS

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