India June wholesale prices fall for third straight month

NEW DELHI, July 14 (Reuters) - Indias annual wholesale prices fell for the third successive month in June, mainly due to lower fuel and power prices, government data showed on Friday.

The wholesale price index (WPI) (INWPI=ECI) in June fell 4.12%, compared with a 3.60% decline estimated by economists in a Reuters poll. In May, it dropped 3.48%.

June wholesale price inflation is at the lowest level since September 2015.

In June, fuel and power prices fell 12.63% from a year earlier, compared with a fall of 9.17% in May and prices of primary articles fell 2.87% versus a fall of 1.79%.

Food prices fell 1.24% year-on-year, compared with 1.59% in May, and manufactured product prices fell 2.71% in June, against a 2.97% fall the previous month.

However, inflation has started to accelerate in the South Asian country after showing signs of easing in the last few months.

Government data last week showed June retail inflation quickened to 4.81%, higher than both the revised 4.31% for the previous month and the 4.58% expected in a Reuters poll of 55 economists, on the back of surging food prices.

Rupa Rege Nitsure, economist at L&T Finance Holdings, said deflationary pressures were expected to lessen going forward as food prices have started rising due to extreme weather events and uneven rainfall.

At its last meeting, the Reserve Bank of India kept interest rates on hold and economists do not expect the central bank to tinker with rates through 2023.

Aprils wholesale price decline was revised to 0.79%, from a fall of 0.92%.