Inflation declines to 7.45 per cent in October

Inflation in India declined marginally to 7.45 per cent in October, even though prices of food items like rice, wheat, pulses and potato showed a rise.

As measured by the Wholesale Price Index (WPI), inflation was 7.81 per cent in September. In October last year, however, it stood at 9.87 per cent.

Inflation for August was revised upwards to 8.01 per cent from 7.55 per cent according to provisional estimates.

Food inflation, as a category, declined to 6.62 per cent during the month, from 7.86 per cent in the previous month. Food articles have 14.3 per cent share in the WPI basket.

While wheat turned expensive by 19.78 per cent from 18.63 per cent in September, cereals became dearer by 14.35 per cent from 14.18 per cent during the period.

On year-on-year basis, potatoes were costlier by 49.13 per cent, pulses by 20 per cent and rice by 11.40 per cent.

However, vegetables prices declined by 7.45 per cent, while onion was down by 8.99 per cent on an annual basis during the reported month.

At the same time, prices of bajra declined by 6 per cent and fish-marine by 5 per cent.

For the fuel and power category, inflation moderated to 11.71 per cent from 11.88 per cent. However, diesel prices increased by 14.60 per cent during the month.

In the manufactured items category, prices of cotton textiles, man-made textile, iron and steel paper and paper products, rubber and plastic products rose relatively at a lower pace compared to the same month of the previous year.

The rate of price rise in the manufactured products was 5.95 per cent in October, as against 6.26 per cent in the previous month.