With the wholesale price index (WPI) declining to below 6 percent in March, Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia said the price situation would improve further in the coming months as inflation behavior is consistent and it is slowly coming under control.
Inflation based on wholesale price index eased to a 40-month low, at 5.96 percent for the month of March as compared to 6.84 percent for the previous month of February. Declining price of vegetables pulled down the inflation in March. With this lower inflation numbers, investors’ hopes that the central bank would further cut interest rates in its next monetary policy scheduled on May 3 to spur investment.
As per Ahluwalia, the monthly numbers of inflation can jump around but in a gradual way inflationary pressure is coming down. However, WPI for January was revised upwards to 7.31%, from 6.62% as per provisional estimates. On the revision of January numbers, he said ‘if January number has been revised upward then the extent of slowing down of inflation is greater than the unrevised numbers show, but I don't think one month number makes a difference’.
