India’s wholesale price-based (WPI) inflation eased to 13.93 per cent in July on easing prices of food articles and manufactured products. The WPI inflation was 15.18 per cent last month and at a record high of 15.88 per cent in May. It was 11.57 per cent in July last year.
The WPI inflation continued its declining trend for the second month in July but remained in double-digits for the 16th consecutive month beginning April last year.
Inflation in food articles in July eased to 10.77 per cent from 14.39 per cent in June. The rate of price rise in vegetables declined substantially to 18.25 per cent in July against 56.75 per cent in the previous month.
In the fuel and power basket, inflation was 43.75 per cent in July compared to 40.38 per cent in the last month. Inflation in manufactured products and oil seeds was 8.16 per cent and (-) 4.06 per cent, respectively.
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) mainly looks at retail inflation to frame monetary policy.
The country’s retail inflation, as measured by the Consumer Price Index (CPI), dropped to a five-month low of 6.71 per cent in July, according to data released on Friday by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, mainly on account of moderation in food prices.
In June, retail inflation was at 7.01 per cent and it stood at 5.59 per cent in July 2021. According to the data, food inflation in July 2022 moderated to 6.75 per cent as against 7.75 per cent in June.
The CPI-based retail inflation, however, remained above the Reserve Bank of India's (RBI's) upper tolerance level of 6 per cent. It has remained above the 6 per cent mark for the past seven months. In the first three months of the current fiscal year, retail inflation remained above 7 per cent.
To tame stubbornly high inflation, the RBI has hiked the key interest rate three times this year to 5.40 per cent. The central bank had projected retail inflation to average 6.7 per cent in FY22-23.