Wholesale Price-based Inflation in India fell 0.58% in July, even as prices of food items in the country continued to increase, according to data released by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry on Friday.
“The annual rate of inflation, based on monthly WPI [Wholesale Price Index] stood at (-0.58%) (Provisional) for the month of July, 2020 (over July, 2019) as compared to (1.17%) in the corresponding period of the previous year,” the commerce ministry said in a press release.
July was the fourth straight month for which India’s WPI inflation remained negative. The WPI inflation in June fell 1.81%. In April, inflation rates fell by 1.57% and a further 3.37% in May.
Inflation in food articles during July was 4.08%, compared to 2.04% in the previous month. Inflation in the fuel and power group, meanwhile, fell 9.84% July in comparison with 13.60% in June. For the manufactured products basket, the inflation in July was 0.51% as against 0.08% in June.
India’s retail inflation, meanwhile, rose to 6.93% in July compared to a revised estimate of 6.23% in June, government data released on Thursday showed.
The government had suspended the release of retail inflation data for April and May, citing difficulties in data collection during amid the coronavirus lockdown. In April, however, it had revised the consumer price inflation to a final 5.84% for March, from the provisional 5.91%.
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