Wholesale inflation eased to a six month low in January as food articles including fruits and vegetables as well as fuel became cheaper.

Data released on Thursday showed that wholesale price index based inflation stood at 2.84 per cent in January as against 3.58 per cent in December. It was 4.26 per cent in January 2017.

Inflation based on the WPI food index also decreased from 2.91per cent in December, 2017 to 1.65 per cent in January, 2018. Data released earlier this week showed that retail inflation was at 5.07 per cent.

Veggies still higher

Pulses witnessed deflation at 30.43 per cent, and the same for wheat and cereals was 6.94 per cent and 1.98 per cent respectively.

Prices of protein rich items eggs, meat and fish cooled by 0.37 per cent while that of fruits rose 8.49 per cent in January.

In the fuel and power segment, wholesale inflation rose to 4.08 per cent in January, while it was 2.78 per cent for manufactured items.

Data released earlier this week showed that retail inflation was at 5.07 per cent. The Reserve Bank takes into account retail inflation while deciding on key policy rates.

In its policy review last week, the RBI had kept key interest rate unchanged and estimated retail inflation to be 5.1 per cent in the January-March quarter. For April-September, the RBI projected inflation to be in the range of 5.1-5.6 per cent.

Meanwhile, inflation for November has been revised upwards to 4.02 per cent from the provisional estimate of 3.93 per cent released earlier.