India's wholesale inflation eases to 0.16 pct in October

Source: Xinhua | 2019-11-15

India's wholesale inflation eased to 0.16 percent in October from 0.33 percent in the previous month, data released by commerce and industry ministry said on Thursday.
"The annual rate of inflation, based on monthly Wholesale Price Index (WPI), stood at 0.16 percent (provisional) for the month of October, 2019 (over October, 2018) as compared to 0.33 percent (provisional) for the previous month and 5.54 percent during the corresponding month of the previous year," a statement issued by ministry said.
"Build up inflation rate in the financial year so far was 1.92 percent compared to a build up rate of 4.90 percent in the corresponding period of the previous year."
According to the data, the official WPI for all commodities (Base: 2011-12=100) for the month of October 2019 rose by 0.7 percent to 122.2 (provisional) from 121.3 (provisional) for the previous month.
The data on wholesale inflation comes a day after separate data showed consumer inflation, the rate of increase in consumer prices, accelerated to a 16-month high of 4.62 percent in October driven by higher food prices.
Food inflation also rose to 7.89 percent during October as against 5.11 percent the preceding month. That marked the first time in 15 months the consumer inflation breached the Reserve Bank of India's medium-term goal of 4 percent.
The RBI, which tracks consumer inflation primarily to formulate its monetary policy, has so far this year lowered the repo rate -- or the key interest rate at which it lends short-term funds to commercial banks -- by 135 points (1.35 percentage points) to 5.15 percent.