Falling for the third straight month, inflation declined to 4.89 in April due to declining price of food items, including fruits and vegetables, which may present a case for further monetary policy easing. Inflation based on the Wholesale Price Index (WPI) stood at 5.96 per cent in March. In April, 2012, it was 7.50 per cent.
The wholesale price (WPI) based inflation was 5.96 per cent in March, while in April, 2012, it was 7.50 per cent.
Food articles, which has a 14.34 per cent share in WPI basket, dropped to 6.08 per cent in April, from 8.73 per cent a month ago, as per official data released on Tuesday.
Fuel prices rose 8.84 per cent in April, compared with an annual rise of 10.18 per cent in March.
Manufacturing inflation declined to 3.41 per cent in April from 4.07 per cent a month ago.
Encouraged by declining inflation, Finance Ministry made a case for further rate cut by the RBI to boost growth.
“... We do believe that RBI would look at this figure (April inflation),” Department of Economic Affairs Secretary Arvind Mayaram said.