The whole sale price index (WPI) based inflation rate declined to 11.44% for the week ended October 4. It was stood at 11.8% for the previous week. This is good news for the government as it is taking various steps through the reserve bank to tame the inflation rate.

Economists believe that inflation could further decline in the coming months.

Decline in the inflation rate is witnessed primarily due to cheap international price of crude oil. There is over 1.1% drop in the index for fuel, power and lubricants for recent weeks due to decline in the rates of naphtha, aviation turbine fuel (ATF) and furnace oil. The prices of manufactured products dropped 0.5% over the last week. This category contributes 63.7% in the WPI. The food products prices such as Cottonseed, imported edible oils and groundnut also registered decline but prices of articles like sugar, salt and groundnut continued to increase. Overall inflation is decreasing but the rates of primary articles are still increasing.

Member of prime minister’s economic advisory council, Saumitra Chaudhary hoped inflation rate to further come down by December end following decline in the rates of crude oil and related products. IDBI Gilts managing director and CEO, N S Venkatesh said that additional liquidity would not increase consumption and inflation rate would remain within limits.