India's wholesale inflation, as measured by the Wholesale Price Index (WPI), slipped to 2.45 percent in May, as against 3.07 percent in April, the lowest level since July 2017, helped by falling prices of food articles, fuel and power items, data published by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry showed on Friday.

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May WPI was expected to slide to 3.06 percent from 3.07 percent in March, as per a CNBC-TV18's poll. The wholesale inflation is expected to be in the range of 2.96 percent to 3.18 percent.

The ministry also revised the wholesale inflation for March to 3.1 percent from 3.18 percent.

The core inflation data for the month of May was at 1.2 percent as compared to 1.90 percent in the previous month.

Wholesale inflation in food rose to 5.10 percent as against 4.95 percent in April. Vegetable inflation fell to 33.15 percent against 40.65 percent in April.

source: tradingeconomics.com

WPI inflation in primary articles fell to 6.16 percent versus 6.50 percent in the previous month.

Data released by the government showed fuel and power inflation declined to 0.98 percent as against 3.84 percent in April.

The non-food articles inflation rose to 6.23 percent in May, compared to 5.23 percent in the previous month.

The Reserve Bank of India's monetary policy committee (MPC) on Thursday announced a rate cut of 25 basis points (bps) and changed the stance to 'accommodative' from 'neutral'. The policy announcement came after the MPC concluded its second bi-monthly meeting for the current fiscal year.

One basis point is one-hundredth of a percentage.

Retail inflation spiked to a seven-month high of 3.05 percent in May, though remaining within RBI's comfort level, as kitchen items like vegetables, meat and fish turned dearer, government data showed on Wednesday.

In last week's bi-monthly monetary policy meeting, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), for the first half of FY20, raised the inflation target to 3-3.1 percent from 2.9-3 percent.

First Published:Jun 14, 2019 12:07 PM IST