Inflation touched five-year low of 3.07 per cent for the week ended October 6, mainly due to decline in prices of essential items like fruits and vegetables, eggs, cereals and some manufactured goods.
The wholesale price-based index stood at 5.36 per cent in the corresponding week last year.
During the the week inflation remained below RBI’s forecast of close to 5 per cent for the current fiscal, raising expectations of a possible rate cut in its half-yearly review of credit policy on October 30.
Among the food articles, fruits and vegetable prices dipped by 4 per cent, eggs and fish fell marginally by 1 per cent, while bajra and maize declined by 2 per cent each.
However, prices of furnaces shot up by 46 per cent followed by aviation turbine fuel which rose by 5 per cent.
Prices of broad-gauged diesel locomotive prices also jumped by
9 per cent.
Meanwhile, festival demand has pushed up the prices of decorative laminates by 7 per cent.