New Delhi: Lower prices of key transportation fuels along with manufactured items eased India's annual rate of inflation based on wholesale prices to 2.02% in June from 2.45% in May, official data showed on Monday.
Similarly, on a year-on-year (YoY) basis, the Wholesale Price Index (WPI) data furnished by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry showed a decelerating trend as inflation had risen to 5.68% during the corresponding period of 2018.
"The annual rate of inflation, based on monthly WPI, stood at 2.02% (provisional) for the month of June, 2019 (over June, 2018) as compared to 2.45% (provisional) for the previous month and 5.68% during the corresponding month of the previous year," the Ministry said in its review of "Index Numbers of Wholesale Price in India" for June.
"Build-up inflation rate in the financial year so far was 1.33% compared to a build-up rate of 2.41% in the corresponding period of the previous year." On a YoY basis, the expenses on primary articles, which constitute 22.62% of the WPI's total weightage, increased to 6.72% from 4.74%.
The prices of food items increased at a faster rate. The category has a weightage of 15.26% in the WPI index. It increased to 6.98% fr om 1.87%. However, potatoes prices deflated (-) 24.27%, whereas onion prices inflated by 16.63%. Overall vegetable prices in June rose 24.76% against 8.49% in the year-ago month.
The cost of fuel and power, which commands 13.15% weightage, deflated to (-)2.2% against a rise of 16.52%. Among the key transportation fuels, the price of high-speed diesel declined by (-) 2.36% from 21.88% on a YoY basis, petrol decreased by (-)5.73% from 18.23%. Expenses on manufactured products registered a rise of 0.94% against 4.17%.
