Still in negative, India's inflation rate at (-) 4.54 percent

New Delhi: India's annual wholesale inflation for September remained in the negative territory at (-)4.54 percent from (-)4.95 percent for the month before, official data released on Wednesday showed.

The annual inflation rate, based on the official wholesale price index (WPI), was ruling at 2.38 percent in September, 2014.

The data furnished by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry further showed that among the three major sub-indices of the WPI, the inflation rate for primary articles and manufactured products inched up by 0.4 percent and 0.1 percent respectively.

Whereas, the index for fuels and power slipped by 1.7 percent.

However, food inflation in the month under review edged up by 0.69 percent from a decline of 1.13 percent recorded in August and 3.68 percent in the corresponding month of last year.

During the month under review, some commodities of mass consumption continued to upset household budgets and notably among them was onion, whose prices were higher by as much as 113.70 percent over the like month of the previous year. Pulses were dearer by 38.56 percent.

Other protein-rich food items such as milk, eggs, meat and fish recorded modest price increases. On a year-on-year (YoY) basis milk was costly by 2.16 percent, while eggs, meat and fish prices rose by 2.02 percent.

At the same time potatoes and vegetables were cheaper respectively by 57.34 percent and 9.45 percent. Even the prices of cereals and rice dwindled. Cereals depreciated by 1.02 percent and rice cheapened by 3.64 percent.

The wholesale inflation data comes on the back of retail inflation for September, based on the consumer price index (CPI) which increased to 4.41 percent -- from 3.74 percent recorded for the previous month.