Lower prices of food items and primary goods decelerated the rise in India's annual rate of inflation based on wholesale prices to 5.09 percent in July from 5.77 percent in June, official data showed on Tuesday.
The data on the Wholesale Price Index (WPI) furnished by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry showed that the rate of inflation had increased to 1.88 percent during the corresponding month in 2017.
"Build up inflation rate in the financial year so far was 2.92 per cent compared to a build-up rate of 0.62 per cent in the corresponding period of the previous year," the Ministry said in its review statement.
On a sequential basis, the expenses on primary articles, which constitute 22.62 percent of the WPI's total weightage inched up by 1.73 percent, from an increase of 5.30 percent in June 2018.
Similarly, the prices of food articles dipped. The category has a weightage of 15.26 percent in the WPI index. It deflated by (-) 2.16 percent from a rise of 1.80 percent.
However, the cost of fuel and power category, which commands a 13.15 percent weightage in the index, increased at a faster pace of 18.10 percent from a growth of 16.18 percent.
In addition, expenses on manufactured products registered a rise of 4.26 percent from 4.17 percent.
On a year-on-year (YoY) basis, onion prices soared higher by 38.82 percent and for potatoes by 74.28 percent.
In contrast, the overall vegetable prices in July declined by 14.07 percent, against a rise of 22.01 percent in the same month, a year ago.
Further, the data revealed that wheat became dearer by 6.31 percent on a YoY basis and the prices of pulses came down by 17.03 percent, but paddy became expensive by 3.96 percent.
The prices of protein-based food items such as eggs, meat and fish became marginally higher by 0.87 percent during the month.
The sub-category of manufactured food products registered a rise of 1.74 percent.
Fuel-wise, the price of high-speed diesel rose by 22.84 percent on a YoY basis while that of petrol climbed by 20.75 percent and LPG by 31.68 percent.
