Wholesale price inflation falls to minus 2.06% in February on cheaper food, fuel items

The wholesale inflation dipped to (-)2.06% in February as prices of food articles, manufactured items and fuel products fell during the month. This is the fourth month in a row that WPI-based inflation remained in the negative zone.

The wholesale price based inflation was (-)0.39% in January. It was 5.03% in February last year. While inflation in onions, pulses and protein-rich items like egg, meat and fish inched upwards, vegetables, fruits and milk saw the rate of price rise decline during the month.

Inflation in food articles category stood at 7.74%, and that in manufactured products category was 0.33%, according to official data released on Monday. Inflation in vegetables stood at 15.54% in February, lower than 19.74 per cent in the previous month.

Potato saw the rate of price rise decline to (-)3.56% as against 2.11% in January. Inflation in fuel and power segment declined to (-)14.72% in February as against (-)10.69% in previous month. The December WPI inflation data has been revised downwards to (-)0.50% as against 0.11% provisional estimate.

The WPI inflation numbers would be taken into account by the Reserve Bank for formulating its next monetary policy announcement, scheduled on April 7. The RBI had lowered policy rates by 0.50% between January-March to prop up growth as it saw inflationary pressure easing.