India's wholesale price inflation eased more-than-expected in March to the lowest level in nearly two-and-a-half years amid a continued slowdown in prices in a wide range of categories, especially in fuel and power, provisional data from the Ministry of Commerce and Industry revealed on Monday.
?The wholesale price index, or WPI, rose 1.34 percent year-over-year in March, slower than the 3.85 percent rise in January. Economists had expected inflation to ease to 1.87 percent.
Further, the rate of inflation remained below the 5.0 percent mark for the fourth straight time in March, and at the slowest pace since October 2020.
The slowdown in inflation was contributed by a fall in prices of basic metals, food products, textiles, non-food articles, minerals, rubber and plastic products, crude petroleum, natural gas and paper, and paper products, the ministry said.
The annual price growth in fuel and power moderated markedly from 14.82 percent in February to 8.96 percent in March. Within this category, prices of mineral oils and electricity declined by 0.24 percent and 4.95 percent respectively.
Prices for primary articles grew at a slower rate of 2.40 percent in March versus a 3.28 percent gain in the prior month. Nonetheless, food articles alone registered an accelerated price growth of 5.48 percent.
Meanwhile, the yearly price growth in manufactured products dropped 0.77 percent compared to a 1.94 percent rise a month ago.
The wholesale price inflation based on food prices eased to 2.32 percent from 2.76 percent.
On a monthly basis, wholesale prices remained flat in March, after a 0.13 percent slight increase in February.
Data released last week showed that India's consumer price inflation eased to a 15-month low of 5.66 percent in March. Moreover, inflation returned within the RBI's tolerance band of 2-6 percent for the first time since December.
