Cheaper fuel cost eases India’s June WPI to 2.02%

New Delhi, July 15 (IANS) Lower prices of key transportation fuels along with manufactured items eased India's annual rate of inflation based on wholesale prices to 2.02 per cent in June from 2.45 per cent in May, official data showed on Monday.

Similarly, on a year-on-year (YoY) basis, the Wholesale Price Index (WPI) data furnished by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry showed a decelerating trend as inflation had risen to 5.68 per cent during the corresponding period of 2018.

"The annual rate of inflation, based on monthly WPI, stood at 2.02 per cent (provisional) for the month of June, 2019 (over June, 2018) as compared to 2.45 per cent (provisional) for the previous month and 5.68 per cent during the corresponding month of the previous year," the Ministry said in its review of "Index Numbers of Wholesale Price in India" for June.

"Build-up inflation rate in the financial year so far was 1.33 per cent compared to a build-up rate of 2.41 per cent in the corresponding period of the previous year."

On a YoY basis, the expenses on primary articles, which constitute 22.62 per cent of the WPI's total weightage, increased to 6.72 per cent from 4.74 per cent.

The prices of food items increased at a faster rate. The category has a weightage of 15.26 per cent in the WPI index. It increased to 6.98 per cent fr om 1.87 per cent.

However, potatoes prices deflated (-) 24.27 per cent, whereas onion prices inflated by 16.63 per cent. Overall vegetable prices in June rose 24.76 per cent against 8.49 per cent in the year-ago month.

The cost of fuel and power, which commands 13.15 per cent weightage, deflated to (-)2.2 per cent against a rise of 16.52 per cent.

Among the key transportation fuels, the price of high-speed diesel declined by (-) 2.36 per cent from 21.88 per cent on a YoY basis, petrol decreased by (-)5.73 per cent from 18.23 per cent.

Expenses on manufactured products registered a rise of 0.94 per cent against 4.17 per cent.