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WPI inflation marginally up at (-)4.54% in September

India Steel Market Watch

October 14: WPI inflation rate edged up marginally to (-)4.54% in September with pulses, vegetables and onion turning costlier even as the overall deflationary trend persisted for 11th month in a row.

The Wholesale Price Index-based inflation was (-)4.95% in August. It has been in the negative zone since November. In September last year, inflation was 2.38%.

Inflation in food articles inched up to 0.69% in September, from (-)1.13% in August.

Onion and pulses turned costlier with inflation at 113.70% and 38.56% respectively during September, as per official data released.

The rate of price rise in vegetables was at (-)9.45% as against (-)21.21% in August.

Inflation rate in fuel and power segment was (-)17.71%, while that in manufactured products was (-)1.73% in September.

Besides pulses and onion, the food items which became dearer in September were eggs, meat and fish (2.02%), milk (2.16%) and wheat (3.34%).

The inflation data for July has been revised to (-)4.0 per cent, as compared to provisional estimates of (-)4.05 per cent.

The Reserve Bank mostly tracks the Consumer Price Index- based inflation for its monetary policy decisions.

The CPI or retail inflation for September rose to 4.41%, from 3.74% in the previous month.

The rise in retail inflation as well as the marginal upward movement of wholesale inflation is unlikely to have a bearing on the monetary policy of RBI. The central bank has signalled that it would wait for sometime before cutting interest rates.

Last month, RBI had reduced interest rates by more than expected 0.50% and said it expects CPI inflation to reach 5.8% in January 2016.