India's WPI inflation eases to 22-month low of 4.95 per cent in December

India's wholesale price index-based inflation eased to 4.95 per cent in December from 5.85 per cent in November on an annual basis, stated provisional data from the Commerce Ministry on Monday.

The inflation rate has slipped below 5 per cent for the first time since Feb 2021.

The month-on-month change in WPI index for December 2022 witnessed a contraction of 1.12 per cent per cent as against a contraction of 0.26 in the preceding month.


“Decline in the rate of inflation in December, 2022 is primarily contributed by fall in prices of food articles, mineral oils, crude petroleum & natural gas, food products, textiles and chemicals & chemical products,” stated the release.

Inflation for food articles eased to 0.65 per cent from 2.17 per cent in November. For the primary articles segment, the inflation rate stood at 2.38 per cent as against 5.52 per cent in the month before.

Wholesale inflation in crude petroleum and natural gas eased to 39.71 per cent in December. In November, it stood at 48.23 per cent. Fuel and power inflation surged to 18.09 per cent from 17.35 per cent in November.

"The index for this major group declined by 1% to 158 (provisional) in December, 2022 from 159.6 (provisional) for the month of November, 2022. Prices of Electricity (9.51%) increased in December, 2022 as compared to November, 2022. Prices of Mineral Oils (4.64%) declined in December, 2022 as compared to November, 2022," the release said.

Inflation for manufactured products came in at 3.37 per cent in December.

Recently, the retail inflation for the month of December eased to a year low of 5.7 per cent. It has remained within RBI’s tolerance band of 2-6 per cent for two consecutive months.

India has been focusing on controlling high inflation levels. RBI governor Shaktikanta Das had recently said that the authorities are extremely watchful of evolving inflation dynamics and look at data almost on a daily basis.