India’s wholesale price inflation fell to 1% in March, government data released on Wednesday showed. Wholesale inflation had stood at 2.26% in February. March’s figure is the lowest since November 2019, Bloomberg reported.
According to Bloomberg, wholesale inflation is likely to remain low because of extremely low supply and demand due to the nationwide lockdown imposed in India to combat the coronavirus outbreak. The lockdown will continue till May 3.
However, the Ministry of Commerce and Industry said the inflation rate may be revised later “in a significant manner”, as it is based on a low response rate due to the Covid-19 outbreak.
The prices of primary articles rose by 3.72% year-on-year in March. Among these, the prices of onion rose by 112.31%, and those of potato by 61.81%.
Fuel and power prices declined 1.76% in March due to falling demand in the face of lockdown restrictions. The prices of manufactured goods increased by just 0.34%, helped by a 4.05% deflation in the prices of basic metals, and a 3.18% fall in prices of 3.18% in chemicals and chemical products.
On April 13, government data showed that retail inflation dropped to 5.91% in March, the lowest in four months.
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