Inflation slides to 6.5%

 The wholesale price index (WPI) inflation fell from 6.73% in the previous week, even as fuel prices remained unchanged. It was 5.92% in the year-ago period.

Finance Minister P Chidambaram had recently said the government had used one or the other measures to moderate inflation from time to time, and the real issue was that global crude prices should fall below $40  a barrel, which "somehow was not happening."

During the week under review, international oil prices had remained over $44 a barrel, even as worries on tight heating oil inventories in the US kept markets jittery.