India’s wholesale inflation eases substantially in July but still in double-digit

New Delhi: India’s wholesale inflation declined substantially during the month of July to 13.93 per cent, but continues to remain in double digits, official data released on Tuesday showed.

The Wholesale Price Index (WPI) based inflation has been in the double-digit for 16 months in a row now. The inflation in July was primarily contributed by rising in prices of mineral oils, food articles, crude petroleum and natural gas, basic metals, electricity, and chemicals, among others, an official statement said.

Prices of minerals (0.96 per cent) increased in July 2022 as compared to June 2022. Prices of food articles (-2.56 per cent), non-food articles (-2.61 per cent) and crude petroleum and natural gas (-5.05 per cent) declined in July 2022 as compared to June 2022.

Further, prices of mineral oils (7.95 per cent) and electricity (6.38 per cent) increased in July 2022 as compared to June 2022.

In June, wholesale inflation was at 15.18 per cent, as against 15.88 per cent reported in May.

Meanwhile, India’s retail inflation fell to 6.71 per cent in July from 7.01 per cent in June, the lowest level in five months, helped by an easing in food and oil prices, as per the National Statistical Office (NSO) data released this Friday.

With this, retail inflation has been over the Reserve Bank of India’s upper tolerance band of 6 per cent for the seventh consecutive month in a row.

In line with the global trend of monetary policy tightening to cool off inflation, the RBI has so far hiked the key repo rates — the rate at which the central bank of a country lends money to commercial banks — by 140 basis points.