Price rise: India’s WPI inflation the lowest in 19 months, eases from 10.7% in Sept to 8.39% in Oct
Virendra Pandit
New Delhi: While many economies worldwide are fighting soaring inflation, and recessionary trends, India’s annual Wholesale Price-based Inflation (WPI) eased from 10.7 percent in September to 8.39 percent in October to 8.39 percent year-on-year, the lowest since March 2021, because of a fall in commodity prices, the government said on Monday.
“Decline in the rate of inflation in October 2022 is primarily contributed by fall in the price of mineral oils, basic metals, fabricated metal products, except machinery and equipment, textiles, other non-metallic mineral products, minerals, etc,” the Ministry of Commerce and Industry said on Monday.
The food inflation decreased from 8.08 percent in September to 6.48 percent in October while the index for manufactured products witnessed a fall of 0.42 percent month-on-month (MoM) and inflation in the fuel and power category showed a decline of 1.65 percent.
“Some of the groups that have witnessed a decrease in prices are basic metals, fabricated metal products, except machinery and equipment, textiles; other non-metallic mineral products, motor vehicles, trailers, and semi-trailers in October 2022 as compared to September 2022,” the ministry’s statement said.
In the group of primary articles, however, inflation rose by 2.42 percent.
The October WPI inflation was lower than an earlier forecast of 8.70 percent and 10.70 percent recorded in the month before.
The wholesale inflation eased below the double-digit mark for the first time since March 2021, when it was at 7.89 percent.
A month ago, Reserve Bank of India Governor Shaktikanta Das said he hoped the October inflation to be lower than 7 percent because of the measures taken by the government and the central bank in the past six to seven months.
He had acknowledged that inflation upwards of 6 percent would hurt growth. His observation came a day after Moody’s cut India’s growth projections for 2022 to 7 percent from the earlier 7.7 percent.
International factors also contributed to controlling inflation. For example, despite western pressures, and with some deft diplomacy, India secured discounted crude from Russia, increased its energy pool for the rainy day, controlled fuel prices, and did not let the inflation go out of control.
