New Delhi, Dec 14 (IANS) India’s annual rate of inflation based on wholesale prices fell to 7.48 percent in November compared to 8.58 percent in the previous month, although the indices for three major constituent commodity groups registered a rise, according to official data released Tuesday.
The continued fall in overall inflation will help the cause of maintaining key interest rates at the current level when the Reserve Bank of India takes up the periodical review of the monetary policy Thursday.
The rate of rise in prices as measured by wholesale prices has eased in the past few weeks due to aggressive monetary tightening policy adopted by the country’s central bank.
As per data released by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, the index for primary articles rose 0.8 percent during November, while those for fuels and manufactured products were up 0.3 percent each.
The government expects inflation to moderate to 6 percent by the end of 2010-11.
Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of a conference, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee said that he expected inflation to come down to 6 percent by March 2011.
For September this year, the inflation figure has been revised upwards to 8.93 percent from the provisional 8.62 percent.
