Wholesale Inflation Declines Marginally In October To Its Lowest In 40 Months

Whole price based inflation in October eased marginally to 0.16 percent from 0.33 percent in September on subdued prices of non-food articles and a decline in prices of manufactured items. The annual inflation, based on the monthly wholesale price index (WPI) was at 5.54 percent in October 2018.

Data released by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry on Thursday showed that the build-up inflation rate in the financial year so far was 1.92 percent compared to a build-up rate of 4.90 percent in the corresponding period of the previous year.

The rate of increase in prices of food articles was at 9.80 percent during the month of review while for non-food articles it stood at 2.35 percent.

For manufactured products, the wholesale inflation was at (-)0.84 percent in October 2019.

On Wednesday, data released by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation showed the Consumer Price Index (rural and urban combined), a representation of retail inflation, surge to a 16-month high of 4.62 percent in the last month when compared to 3.99 percent in September and 3.38 percent in October 2018.