Wholesale Price Index for the month ended March moderated to 3-year low of 5.96 per cent against Reserve Bank's projection of 6.8 per cent.
RBI expected wholesale prices-based inflation, which is near the double-digit region now, to moderate over the next few months but warned of upside risks owing to firming global commodity prices, particularly oil.
Inflation rose to 0.70 per cent for the week ended April 25 on account of higher prices of essential food articles like cereals, pulses, vegetable, milk and sugar.
Inflation declines to 5.66 per cent for the week ended April 28 as compared to 5.77 per cent in the previous week.
Inflation eased to 0.18 per cent, the lowest ever in the last three decades, even as prices of food articles like pulses, cereals and vegetable hardened during the week ended April 4.
Inflation declined to 0.26 per cent, the lowest ever in more than three decades, for the week ended March 28 mainly on account of food items and mineral products, fuelling expectations of rate cuts by the Reserve Bank.
Former RBI governor Raghuram Rajan on Monday said the central bank will have to raise interest rates to tame inflation and the hikes need not be considered by politicians and bureaucrats as some "anti-national" activity. Known for his frank views, Rajan also said it was important to remember that the "war against inflation" is never over. "Inflation is up in India. At some point, the RBI will have to raise rates, like the rest of the world is doing," he said in a LinkedIn post.
This lack of regular and detailed disclosure by companies or respondents lies at the core of the problem, one that has gained ground in recent weeks.
Wholesale price-based inflation fell to single digit at 9.97 per cent in July, owing to decline in prices of certain food and non-food items.
It can be closer to RBI's perceived comfort level.
The government's statistical system is being overhauled with painful slowness. The base years for the indices are too far back in time, the weights for different sub-sets are out of date, the methods of data collection are defective, and the statistical methods used simplistic.
Global retail behemoths seem to have read the signals right.
Inflation rose to 3.79 per cent for the first week of the New Year from 3.50 per cent during the previous week even as prices of some essential food items like vegetables and fruits fell.
However, onion arrivals have been normal with farmers bringing in 1,400 tonnes of the bulb to Lasalgaon on Friday, substantially lower than 2,429 tonnes on Thursday, but there is no dearth of supply to mandis.
"The WPI is not a true reflection of the burden put on the people through the rise in prices of essential commodities. It is a misnomer to use it as an index for measuring inflation," party leader Sitaram Yechury told reporters. Quoting the oft-repeated phrase 'statistics, more statistics and damned lies', he said the weightage of the basket of food items to calculate the WPI was 22 per cent as against that of steel products which was 25 per cent.
The wholesale price-based inflation stood at 5.78 per cent in the corresponding week a year ago. Among manufactured items, prices of bread and buns went up by seven per cent, while those of butter and cottonseed oil rose by two per cent, and maida one per cent.
The increase in the rate of price rise, noticed after a gap of more than two months, was due to an eight-day nation-wide strike by truck operators, which began on January 5. Among the items that became expensive during the week were fruit and vegetables (9 per cent), wheat (2 per cent) and spices, milk, ragi and rice (1 per cent each).
Inflation declined for the tenth consecutive week today to 5.24 per cent for the week ended January 3, primarily due to decline in prices of food articles.
Inflation increased to 3.11 per cent for the week ended November 3, compared to 2.97 per cent a week ago, mainly due to rise in prices of food items, petroleum products and manufactured articles.
Fitch Ratings said with GDP growth of 6.5% and WPI-based inflation of 8.8%, India may have entered into a stagflation period in 2011-12.
Inflation declines to 8.00 per cent for the week ended November 29 from 8.40 per cent in the previous week.
After rising for five consecutive weeks, inflation fell to 5.09 per cent during the week ended October 28, compared to 5.41 per cent in the previous week with drop in prices of essential commodities.\n\n
Inflation falls to 8.84 per cent for the week ended November 15 from 8.90 per cent in the previous week.
The price difference between branded tea and loose tea has narrowed to a mere 5 per cent, helping the consumer to opt for branded labels. According to Bloomberg, the wholesale price index for tea in India gained 74 basis points from 128.30 in January to 222.50 at end of October this year. As a consequence, tea manufacturers in the wholesale and loose tea business, besides branded tea players, have increased prices.
The bank is due to review the monetary policy on July 30.
The wholesale price-based index stood at 5.27 per cent in the corresponding week a year ago.
Inflation, as measured by the movement in the wholesale prices, was 0.26 for the week ended April 11 and 8.23 per cent in the corresponding period a year ago. While the price of rice bran oil was up by 11 per cent, khandsari and cotton seed oil prices rose by eight per cent each.
The wholesale prices-based inflation rose by 0.21 per cent at 4.82 per cent during the week ended August 5, as against 4.61 per cent for the previous week, with some manufactured products along with aviation turbine fuel becoming costlier.
Finance Minister P Chidambaram attributed on Friday the fall in wholesale prices-based inflation to steps taken on the monetary front and said the government will continue to monitor the price-situation. He said consumer prices-based inflation was also down by 80 basis points in September over the previous month. The point-to-point rate of inflation, based on the CPI-IW, has decreased from 7.26 per cent in August to 6.40 per cent in September.
The Nikkei India Manufacturing PMI dipped from 50.3 in November to 49.1 in December.
The government's efforts to bring down inflation to tolerable limits and curb runaway prices might have begun to bear some fruit, albeit at a snail's pace.
As it bets on a good monsoon for food prices to ease, the government on Tuesday said the Reserve Bank will consider appropriate policy actions to tighten money supply to bring down inflation.
Slightly lower prices of food items like fruits, vegetables and milk pushed inflation down to to 12.34 per cent from 12.40 per cent a week ago.
The government's efforts to bring down inflation to tolerable limits and curb runaway prices might have begun to bear some fruit.
Several groceries in the metro ran out of milk, curd, bread, and milk powder and some of them displayed "no milk, curd" boards.
Falling core inflation on the back of slowing economic growth is likely to create space for the Reserve Bank to ease monetary policy in the early part of the next year, rating agency Crisil said.
Inflation eased to 4.28 per cent for the week ended June 9, as compared to 4.8 per cent for the previous week, mainly due to lower prices of food articles and some manufactured items.
The average wholesale price inflation for FY14 will come at 5.3 per cent, while the consumer price inflation will average under 9 per cent, which would be a five-year low, the brokerage said.
Inflation eased marginally to 9.59 per cent in April, but cost of some vegetables and metals remained high.
The forecast has an error margin of four days, which is considered normal
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