The Wholesale Price Index Inflation (WPI Inflation) for the month of April fell to -0.92 on an annual basis against 1.34 per cent in March, the Department of Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade, Ministry of Commerce and Industry said on Monday. It is for the first time that the WPI Inflation has turned negative since July 2020.
This is the 11th straight month when the WPI based inflation has declined. Additionally, the month-over-month change in WPI for April 2023 over March 2023 remained 0.0 per cent.
The decline in the rate of inflation was broad and was primarily due to fall in the cost of crude, energy, non-food and food articles, the government announced in a statement.
Fuel and power inflation for April falls down to 0.93 per cent from 8.96 per cent in March and the food inflation is at 0.17 per cent against 2.32 per cent in April. The primary articles inflation dipped to 1.60 per cent in April against 2.40 per cent in March.
Inflation in manufactured products slipped to -2.42 per cent in April against -0.77 per cent in March.
WPI hits 29-month low
The WPI had come down to a 29-month low of 1.34 per cent in March due to easing prices of manufactured products and fuel items. This was despite the rising prices of food articles.
Retail inflation eases to 4.7 per cent
On the other hand the retail inflation in India hit an 18-month low in April at 4.7 per cent against 5.7 per cent in the previous month.
India's retail inflation was over the Reserve Bank of India's 6 per cent target for three consecutive quarters and only came down in November 2022.
The RBI in its first monetary policy review meeting in the fiscal decided to keep the repo rate unchanged to 6.5 per cent to check the effects of the policy rate hikes.
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