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April WPI inflation hits 2-month low of 5.20%

May 15: India's wholesale price inflation hit a two-month low in April to 5.20%, after hitting a high of 5.70% in March, according to an official release by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry. 

The wholesale price index (WPI), long regarded as India's main inflation measure, rose from 4.77% in the corresponding month last year (April 2013).

The reading for February WPI inflation revised up to 5.03% from 4.68% earlier.

India has been battling a prolonged spell of high inflation and low growth. While economic growth has almost halved to below 5% for the past two years, the worst slowdown for the South Asian nation since the 1980s, retail inflation has been averaging around 10%.

A sharper-than-expected cooling in vegetable prices in the past three months had raised hopes of breaking out of that spell. A continuing slump in investment and consumer demand resulted in a 0.5% annual contraction in industrial output in March. Trade deficit during April, however, narrowed by 43% y-o-y.