The wholesale price-based inflation declined to a 19-month low of 8.39% in October, on easing prices of fuel and manufactured items.
This is the first time in 19 months that WPI inflation print has come in single digit. The last was in March 2021 at 7.89%.
Since April 2021, WPI inflation remained in double digits for 18 months with September print at 10.79%. Inflation in October 2021 was 13.83%.
“Decline in the rate of inflation in October 2022 is primarily contributed by fall in the price of mineral oils, basic metals, fabricated metal products, except machinery and equipment; textiles; other non-metallic mineral products; minerals etc,” the commerce and industry ministry said on Monday.
Inflation in food articles in October was 8.33%, against 11.03% in the previous month.
Inflation in vegetables was at 17.61% during the month, against 39.66% in September.
In the ‘Fuel and Power’ basket, inflation was 23.17%, while in manufactured products it was 4.42% during October.
The Reserve Bank takes into account retail inflation for formulating monetary policy. The October retail inflation data would be released later in the day and is likely to come in at below 7%.
The RBI has hiked interest rates by 190 basis points between May to September to 5.90% to tame persistently high inflation which has remained above the RBI’s upper tolerance level of 6% for three consecutive quarters.
