The Centre on Monday said India’s annual consumer price inflation reduced to 2.18% in May, ANI reported. The figure is the lowest recorded since India started releasing inflation numbers in 2012.

In April, the retail inflation recorded was 2.99%. A Reuters poll had predicted May’s figure would be around 2.60%. Retail food prices dropped by 1.05% in May when compared to the same month’s figure in 2016. They had risen 0.61% in April.

The data, released by the Union government, pegged the industrial production index for April 2017 at 117.9, which is 3.1% more than the corresponding month in 2016, ANI reported.

Following the fall in consumer price inflation, the Reserve Bank of India may now consider reducing its interest rate during its next policy meeting in August, said NDTV. The apex bank had kept the interest rate unchanged in view of the imminent inflation results.