The FINANCIAL — India’s wholesale-price index fell for the 13th month in a row in November, though the pace of decline slowed as costs of pulses and vegetables continued to rise, government data showed on December 14, according to Nasdaq.
The index fell 1.99% from a year earlier, compared with October’s 3.81% fall and was less than economists’ forecast of a 2.4% drop.
Prices of lentils rose 58.2% from a year earlier in November, as below-average monsoon rainfall reduced harvests of the crop. Lentil prices rose 53% in October.
Fuel prices, however, fell 11.09%, extending a decline over the past several months that has pulled wholesale prices overall into deflationary territory.
Despite the sustained fall in wholesale prices, policymakers are unlikely to be too worried as retail prices–the more closely watched gauge of price rises in the country–continue to rise.
The government will announce the consumer-inflation data for November later Monday. Economists expect it to accelerate to 5.4% from a year earlier. If the reading matches the estimate, it would be the highest in five months and the fourth month in a row it has risen.
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