India’s annual rate of inflation based on the All India Wholesale Price Index (WPI) number fell to a two-year low of -0.58 per cent in July, staying in negative territory for the second consecutive month.
Negative rate of inflation is primarily due to a decrease in prices of food articles, mineral oils, crude petroleum & natural gas, manufacture of basic metals, etc, according to data released by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry.per cent
The month-over-month change in WPI for July stood at 0.39 per cent as compared to June.
The prices of primary food articles (-6.3 per cent) fell for the third straight month, led by sharp declines in onion (-44.4 per cent), potato (-41.3 per cent), vegetables (-28.9 per cent), pulses (-15.12 per cent), fruits (-2.65 per cent), and protein-rich items like eggs, meat, and fish (-1.09 per cent).
Wheat prices rose 4.4 per cent, while oilseeds saw a significant spike of 9.77 per cent.
Index for Fuel & Power increased by 1.12 per cent from 143.0 (provisional) for June to 144.6 (provisional) in July.
The Food Index increased from 190.2 in June to 191.3 in July, with the rate of inflation based on the WPI Food Index remaining negative from (-) 0.26 per cent in June 2025 to (-) 2.15 per cent in July 2025.
Speaking on the numbers, Rahul Agrawal, Senior Economist at ICRA Ratings, said the July deflation was largely driven by the food segment, even as prices in all other categories firmed compared to the previous month.
“Heavy rains could push up perishable prices sharply in the second half of August, and this will be a key monitorable,” he added.
The government also released the retail inflation data recently, saying it slipped to an eight-year low of 1.55 per cent in July, mainly due to subdued prices of food items, including vegetables and cereals. The consumer price index (CPI) based inflation was 2.1 per cent in June and 3.6 per cent in July 2024.
According to the data released by the Ministry of Statistics & Programme Implementation (MoSPI), there is a decline of 55 basis points in the headline inflation of July 2025 in comparison to June 2025. It is the lowest year-on-year inflation rate since June 2017.