Pulses cropping has jumped to 39.4 per cent above 2015 levels.
However, some analysts say RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan may delay the rate cuts amid mounting concerns over the government's fiscal health.
In August, wholesale prices rose 3.74 per cent year-on-year.
The rapid deceleration in prices has ignited a debate in New Delhi whether Asia's third-largest economy is heading towards deflation.
American brokerage BofA Securities on Friday said the Indian economy continues to be "weak", pointing to activity indicators tracked by it. On the positive side, the brokerage said credit demand is bottoming out and the real lending rates adjusted for wholesale price inflation are falling. It can be noted that there has been a slew of reports lately about a stronger recovery being underway after the jolt caused by the pandemic.
The change from wholesale to retail inflation as an anchor means that the weightage of diesel in inflation has decreased
In the current fiscal so far, retail inflation stabilised around 5 per cent, while wholesale price-based inflation averaged around 2.9 per cent during April-December.
With pricing power of producers unlikely to strengthen and commodities ex-crude oil likely to remain sluggish in the immediate term, the core-WPI inflation may remain sub-zero in the rest of this calendar year.
Industrial production was seen growing 1.8 per cent from a year earlier in July, slower than June's 3.4 per cent increase, according to the median consensus in a poll of 31 economists.
A Kotak research report expects RBI to cuts rates by 50 basis points in the first half of 2019. RBI will announce its sixth bi-monthly monetary policy on February 7.
Rajan has been facing continuous attacks by Bharatiya Janata Party MP Subramanian Swamy and some other sections, who have alleged that he has failed to lower interest rates and boost the economy
The excise duty cut will translate into a reduction of Rs 9.5 a litre on petrol and Rs 7 a litre in diesel after taking into account its impact on other levies.
V Vaidyanathan, former executive director at ICICI Bank who turned entrepreneur to run Capital First, an NBFC that caters to smaller businesses, tells Pavan Lall in an exclusive interview that his new entity post the merger of Capital First and IDFC Bank which will be called IDFC First will launch by January and cater to a new India with value services.
He said the short term macroeconomic priorities of the RBI continue to focus on bringing down inflation towards the government-set target of 4 per cent
'Without appropriate supervisory constraints in place, banks are in a position to delay the recognition of losses and engage in ever-greening or zombie lending, which is essentially the rolling over of debts of unviable borrowers that would have otherwise defaulted,' points out RBI Deputy Governor Viral Acharya.
With its new line-up, the firm has managed to touch the right chords, but to regain market share from the established players, Micromax will have to fight a protracted battle.
Next time you swipe, ask yourself, do you really need it or do you just want it?
RBI takes steps to control inflation but the masses are not convinced.
The government is somehow convinced that selective low-rate lending will stimulate demand and accelerate economic growth that plunged to a four-year low of 4.4 per cent in the first three months of 2013-14.
The muted expectation of dealers come at a time when vehicle manufacturers such as Maruti Suzuki, Hyundai Motor, Mahindra & Mahindra and others reported a double-digit fall in wholesale dispatches to dealerships in July and August.
In case of onions, inflation skyrocketed to 127.04 per cent, while for the eggs, meat and fish segment the rate of price rise was 5.76 per cent.
Economic think-tank, Institute of Economic Growth said on Wednesday it expected widely tracked wholesale prices-based inflation to hover above 6 per cent for the present quarter.
The consumer price index has been in double digits for much of the past year, and was 9.8 per cent in September.
Consumer prices were forecast to have risen 10.00 per cent annually last month, barely changed from the 10.09 per cent clocked in October.
Investors' confidence has been revived in recent weeks on the likelihood the elections will usher in a new government.
The surge in inflation is a major cause of concern even for giants like the United States and China and rich nations like Britain and Singapore.
What differentiates Rajan from his predecessors is his proactive steps in anticipating a problem and coming up with out-of-the-box solutions
Inflation in food articles inched up to 0.69 per cent in September.
.jpg)
The rupee resumed slightly lower at 62.05 per dollar as against the last weekend's level of 62.04 at the Interbank Foreign Exchange market. It recovered to 61.88 per dollar before quoting 61.93 at 1045 hours.
If imputed inflation for April and May is used, then you have inflation of over 6 per cent for two consecutive quarters, which is a worrying signal for the RBI.
There are glaring anomalies with Indian data and that could lead to wrong policy prescriptions.
The country's gross domestic product (GDP) growth is likely to be 8.8 to 9 per cent in the current financial year, driven by agriculture and industry sectors, Care Ratings said in a report. The country's economy had contracted by 7.3 per cent in fiscal 2020-21. The agency said the outlook for the Indian economy on almost all counts in FY22 would look seemingly better than FY21 on account of the negative base effect.
As per commerce and industry ministry data, food inflation fell to 4.91 per cent in March from 7.79 per cent in the previous month.
Food inflation was 7.79 per cent last month, higher than a revised 7.47 per cent in May
In spite of Governor Raghuram Rajan's repeated concerns about inflation, many think there may still be a loosening of stance.
In New York, the dollar edged down against the yen for the first time in three sessions as investors weighed economic data and remarks from outgoing Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke.
RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan on Friday said keeping inflation low is the key task for sustainable economic growth of the country.
Inflation in the 'fuel and power' basket in December slumped to 8.38 per cent, nearly half of 16.28 per cent.
Wholesale fuel prices in May fell 10.51 per cent year-on-year.
Vegetables tend to get damaged faster during summers.
© 2026 Rediff.com - Investor Information - Advertise with us - Disclaimer - Privacy Policy - Sitemap - Feedback - About us - Terms of use - Grievances