India’s consumer price inflation eased more-than-expected in October to a new record low as the impact of the reduction in GST was visible across all sectors, official data revealed on Wednesday.
Consumer price inflation slowed to 0.25 percent in October from 1.44 percent in September. Economists had expected inflation to moderate to 0.48 percent.
Further, this was the weakest inflation of the current CPI series.
The inflation is well below the Reserve Bank of India’s tolerance band of 2-6 percent. During its last meeting, the RBI decided to hold rates at 5.5 percent.
The fall in food prices deepened to 5.02 percent in October, the lowest in the series’ history, from 2.33 percent in September.
The fall in both headline and food inflation was mainly attributed to the full month’s impact of the decline in GST, the favorable base effect, and the drop in inflation of oils and fats, vegetables, fruits, eggs, footwear, cereals and products, transport and communication, etc.
The annual price growth in transport and communication slowed to 0.94 percent from 1.82 percent, and housing inflation eased marginally to 2.96 percent from 2.98 percent. Meanwhile, fuel and light prices grew at a stable rate of 1.98 percent.
On a monthly basis, consumer prices edged up 0.15 percent.
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