The Centre on Tuesday said that the annual rate of inflation based on wholesale prices had reduced to 3.07% in April because of cheaper fuel and manufactured items. The prices of food articles, however, remained relatively high.

The wholesale price index-based inflation was at 3.18% in March and 3.2% in April 2018.

The inflation in food articles increased to 7.37% from 5.68% in March because of a rise in the prices of vegetables. The inflation in vegetable prices was at 40.65% in April, up from 28.13% in the previous month.

In the fuel and power category, the inflation rate reduced from 5.41% in March to 3.84% in April.

On Monday, the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation said that the Consumer Price Index inflation stood at 2.92% in April. This is marginally higher than the 2.86% inflation recorded for March.

On May 10, the government said industrial output declined by 0.1% in March, showing negative growth for the first time in 21 months. The industrial output growth in February was 0.1% and 1.7% in January.

The Reserve Bank of India’s Monetary Policy Committee will meet in June for the second monetary policy review for the financial year.