Wholesale price index inflation down to 8.39% in Oct, from 10.7% in Sept

 

WPI Inflation: October WPI inflation of 8.39 per cent was lower than the forecast of 8.70 per cent, news agency Reuters reported.

India's wholesale price index (WPI) inflation eased to 8.39 per cent in October - helped by a fall in commodity prices - news agency PTI said Monday citing government data. October WPI inflation figures are down from 10.7 per cent in September and 12.41 per cent in August, and are a far cry from the all-time high of 16.6 per cent recorded in May .

According to business publication Mint, this is the lowest WPI inflation figure since March last year. Consumer price index inflation (CPI), or retail inflation, figures are due later today.

The median view of 47 economists polled by news agency Reuters indicates CPI will also slow - from 7.41 per cent in September to an expected 6.73 per cent for October.

Different economists' forecasts ranged from 6.40 per cent to 7.35 per cent, with three-quarters expecting it to be under 7 per cent.

Whatever the final figure is, it is expected to stubbornly remain well above the 6 per cent upper limit of the Reserve Bank of India's tolerance band - a level that RBI governor Shaktikanta Das defended last week at the 2022 Hindustan Times Leadership Summit.