With inflation moderating in June over the previous month, the Finance Ministry today said the decline is likely to continue with improvement in food supply situation.
“We are hopeful that this declining trend will continue,” the Minister of State for Finance, Mr Namo Narain Meena, told reporters here.
He said the south-west monsoon forecast by the India Meteorological Department (IMD) is still positive as deficiency in rainfall has come down in the last two weeks.
“Availability of food articles is expected to increase and this will address supply constraints,” Mr Meena added.
He said the decline in June inflation is due to decrease in the prices of some non-food articles and fuel items on year-on-year basis.
The wholesale price index (WPI) based inflation in June declined to 7.25 per cent from 7.55 per cent in the previous month.
State-owned oil marketing companies, which had raised petrol prices in May by Rs 7.54 a litre, slashed the rates by about Rs 4.5 a litre in two tranches in June.
In the manufactured items category, the rate of price rise in cotton textile, rubber and plastic products, iron and machinery eased a little on year-on-year basis.
Monsoon, the lifeline of agriculture, had hit Kerala on June 5 but its progress throughout the country has been delayed impacting the sowing of crops such as paddy and coarse cereals.