Wholesale inflation slipped to a 22-month low of 2.45 per cent in May helped by falling prices of food articles, fuel and power items, government data showed on Friday. Wholesale inflation - gauged by the Wholesale Price Index (WPI) - at 3.07 per cent in April. Friday's data showed wholesale inflation in May was at the lowest level since July 2017, when it had stood at 1.88 per cent.

Inflation in the food articles basket was 6.99 per cent, as against 7.37 per cent in April. However, onion prices spiked during the month with inflation at 15.89 per cent, as against deflation of 3.43 per cent in April.

Vegetables inflation eased to 33.15 per cent in May, down from 40.65 per cent in the previous month. Potato prices remained in a deflationary trend, with a reading of 23.36 per cent in May, as against against 17.15 per cent in the previous month.

Inflation in the 'fuel and power' category cooled to 0.98 per cent, from 3.84 per cent in April.

Inflation in manufactured items came in at 1.28 per cent in May, as against 1.72 per cent in the previous month.

WPI inflation reading for the month of March was revised downwards 3.10 per cent from 3.18 per cent.

Data released earlier this week showed retail inflation spiked to a seven-month high of 3.05 per cent in May on costlier vegetables, and protein-rich items.

The Reserve Bank of India, which mainly factors in retail inflation for monetary policy decision, on June 6 revised its benchmark lending rate to a nearly nine-year low of 5.75 per cent. It, however, raised its inflation projection to 3-3.1 per cent for the first half of 2019-20.