Food Prices Soften, November Wholesale Inflation Down to 4.64%

Food items saw softening of prices with deflation at 3.31 percent in November, against 1.49 percent in October.

Inflation based on wholesale prices fell to a three-month low of 4.64 percent in November, as prices of food articles, especially vegetables, softened.

The Wholesale Price Index (WPI) - based inflation stood was 5.28 percent in October and 4.02 percent in November last year. According to the government data released on Friday, 14 December, food articles witnessed softening of prices with deflation at 3.31 percent in November, against 1.49 percent in October.

Vegetables, too, became cheaper with deflation at 26.98 percent in November, compared to 18.65 percent in the previous month.

Inflation of Fuel & Power High at 16.28%

Inflation in the 'fuel and power' basket in November continued to rule high at 16.28 percent, but was lower than 18.44 per cent in October. This was on account of lowering of prices of petrol and diesel.

Individually, in petrol and diesel it was 12.06 percent and 20.16 percent, respectively, and for liquified petroleum gas (LPG) it was 23.22 percent during October.

Among food articles, potato prices continued to rule high with 86.45 percent inflation in November. While onion witnessed deflation of 47.60 percent; the same for pulses stood at 5.42 pe cent.

The 4.64 percent inflation is the lowest in three months, and a lower inflation than this was last seen in August at 4.62 percent.

Nov CPI Drops to 17-Month Low at 2.33%

Data released earlier this week showed that the retail or consumer price index-based inflation for November also fell to a 17-month low at 2.33 per cent.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) mainly takes into account retail inflation data while formulating monetary policy.

In its fifth monetary policy review for the fiscal, released last week, the Reserve Bank kept interest rates unchanged, but held out a promise to cut them if the upside risks to inflation do not materialise.

The central bank lowered retail inflation projection to 2.7-3.2 percent for the second half of the current fiscal, citing normal monsoon and moderate food prices.