Coal news and updates

India’s Dec WPI slips 0.9% m-o-m as oil tumbles

January 14: India's wholesale price index showed a 0.9% fall in December to 179.8 (provisional) from 181.5 (provisional) for the previous month as oil prices tumbled, building a case for the Reserve Bank of India to start lowering interest rates early next year to help prop up economic growth.

According to an official release, the build-up inflation rate in the financial year so far was -0.28% compared to a build-up rate of 5.58% in the corresponding period of the previous year.

The index for the ‘Minerals’ group declined by 0.5 percent to 325.7 (provisional) from 327.4 (provisional) for the previous month due to lower price of barites and phosphorite (7% each), crude petroleum (4%), manganese ore (3%) and sillimanite and steatite (1% each). However, the price of magnesite (29%), zinc concentrate (25%), copper ore (11%) and limestone (4%) moved up.

The WPI index of October, 2014, stands revised to 183.7 as compared to 183.9 (provisional) and annual rate of inflation based on the final index stood at 1.66 percent as compared to 1.77% respectively as reported on October 14, 2014.