New Delhi, Aug 14 (KNN) The annual rate of inflation based on all India Wholesale Price Index (WPI) number is (-) 1.36% (Provisional) for the month of July, 2023 (over July, 2022) against (-) 4.12% recorded in June, 2023, announced the Ministry of Commerce & Industry on Monday.

Although India's wholesale prices remained in the deflationary zone for the fourth month in a row in July, as per the data.

Decline in the rate of inflation in July, 2023 is primarily contributed by fall in prices of mineral oils, basic metals, chemical & chemical products, textiles and food products, said the Ministry.

WPI inflation stood at -4.12% in June, which was the lowest in more than seven-and-a-half years.

The wholesale inflation data comes hours before the statistics ministry will release Consumer Price Index (CPI) data for July later today on August 14 at 5.30 pm, which is expected to show the headline retail inflation rate surged to a nine-month high of 6.6%, reported Moneycontrol.

The divergence between WPI and CPI inflation is due to the differences in the items the two price indices contain, with the latter also including services and a higher share of food items.

Within vegetables, the index of tomatoes was up an astonishing 307% month-on-month.

On the whole, vegetable inflation -which measures the change in price compared to the same month last year - rose to 62.12% in July from -21.98% in June.

On the downside, the biggest month-on-month decline among food items was posted by fruits, whose index was down 6.99% from June.

Food items apart, prices eased in July, with the index for fuel and power down 0.48% from June and that of manufacturing products lower by 0.29%.

However, the month-on-month decline in these two indices was lower compared to the numbers they posted in June.  (KNN Bureau)