Wholesale inflation in February eased to -2.06 per cent against -0.39 per cent in January on the back of falling global oil prices, government data showed on Monday. Fuel prices during the month cooled to -14.72 per cent against -10.79 in January.
The government revised the December number to 0.50 per cent, which marks the fourth fall in wholesale inflation in as many months.
The data beat estimates, as a Reuters poll of economists had expected wholesale inflation in February to come in at -0.70 per cent.
"Headline WPI (wholesale price index) continued in the negative territory, but in the Indian context we should stop short of calling this a deflation. This is just a dis-inflation, created out of a sharp yoy (year-on-year) drop in global commodity prices in the midst of not too strong depreciation pressures on the INR (Indian rupee)," Indranil Pan, chief economist, Kotak Mahindra Bank said.
Food inflation eased to -7.74 per cent during the reporting month compared to -8 per cent in January. Onion prices however, rose sharply to 26.58 per cent against -1.90 per cent in January.
Consumer inflation, which the RBI uses as a benchmark since February, however inched up for the third straight month during the same month, driven by food prices, data showed on Thursday.
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