India’s wholesale price index (WPI) based inflation further fell to stand at -4.12 per cent in June, from -3.48 per cent in May, according to the commerce ministry data released on Friday.
The decline in WPI was due to fall in prices of mineral oils, food products, basic metals, crude petroleum & natural gas and textiles.
The Wholesale Price Index is the price of a representative basket of wholesale goods. Some countries use WPI changes as a central measure of inflation. But now India has adopted new CPI to measure inflation. However, United States now report a producer price index instead.
This is the third month in a row when wholesale inflation has stayed in the deflationary zone.
At -4.12 per cent, the WPI inflation has hit its lowest level since October 2015, when it had fallen to -4.76 per cent.
In April 2023, it stood at (-)0.92 per cent.
In March 2023, WPI inflation had fallen to a 29-month low of 1.34 per cent owing to steep fall in indexes of primary articles, manufactured products, fuel and power as well as food.
Meanwhile, according to the commerce ministry data, the all-commodities index of the WPI fell by 0.4 per cent month-on-month in June, indicating weakening of price momentum.
