India’s wholesale inflation still negative, but tad up

new delhi — India’s annual wholesale inflation continued to be in the negative in May but moved up slightly to (—)2.36 per cent from (—)2.65 per cent in the previous month, mainly on account of a rise in prices of food articles, official data showed on Monday.

The annual inflation rate based on the Wholesale Price Index (WPI) was recorded at 6.18 per cent in May 2014.

During the period under review, the index for food articles was up 3.8 per cent in May mainly due to a 22.8 per cent increase in prices of pulses and 20.41 per cent in that for onions. Potatoes, however, were cheaper by 51.95 per cent.

Other important food articles such as fruits, milk and wheat became dearer. Fruits were expensive by 8.65 per cent, followed by milk which was costlier by 6.85 per cent and wheat lightened the pocket by another 2.79 per cent.

Among the other major sub-indice of the WPI, the annual inflation for fuel in May was (-)10.41 per cent, data released by the commerce and industry ministry showed.

The prices of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) fell by 5.18 per cent, petrol became cheaper by 11.29 per cent and diesel cost came down by 11.62 per cent.

The manufactured products subindice also declined. It stood at (—)0.64 per cent. The primary articles sub-indice was marginally down by (—)0.77 per cent.

The official data showed that the rise in May was the first time after successive declines during the last seven months.

On a month-on-month basis the annual inflation successively decelerated in the past six months — from 1.66 per cent in October 2014 to (—)0.17 per cent in November to (—)0.5 per cent, (—)0.95 per cent, (—)2.06 per cent, (—)2.33 per cent and (—) 2.65 per cent, respectively, in the next five months.

The marginal rise in the WPIbased inflation comes on the back of retail inflation also gaining momentum.

The consumer price index (CPI) measured by the Central Statistical Office (CSO) inched up to 5.01 per cent in May from 4.8 per cent in April.

The retail inflation was at 8.33 per cent in the corresponding month of 2014.