Inflation on a downward slope, says RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das

Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Shaktikanta Das said that if one looks at the momentum of inflation from last October onwards, it is going downwards as far as India is concerned. He further noted that this is due to statistical reasons like the base effect, which has led to higher inflation especially in Q3.
 
Das further explained, “The same base effect will play in different ways in the coming months. Today’s inflation print is expected to be close to 6 percent. That should not surprise or create any alarm because we have taken that into consideration.”

Meanwhile, the wholesale price-based inflation (WPI) went down for the third time to 12.96 per cent in January, as per the Ministry of Commerce and Industry. Prior to this, WPI eased to 14.87 per cent in November and 13.56 per cent in December respectively.
 
Although there has been a decline in WPI, the high rate of inflation was reported in January on the back of rise in prices of basic metals, chemicals and chemical products, crude petroleum and natural gas, food articles, mineral oils, etc. compared to the corresponding month of the previous year.
 
Inflation in manufactured products saw a rise of 0.51 per cent to 137.1 in January and prices of electricity went up by 15.94 per cent while prices of mineral oils rose by 0.83 per cent in the same month. Coal prices, however, remained constant.
 
“The Food Index consisting of ‘Food Articles’ from the Primary Articles group and ‘Food Product’ from Manufactured Products group have decreased from 169 in December 2021 to 166.3 in January 2022. The rate of inflation based on WPI Food Index increased marginally from 9.24 percent in December 2021 to 9.55 percent in January 2022,” the Ministry further noted.
 
Also read: WPI inflation eases to 12.96% in Jan