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Indian inflation dips to two-year low

NEW DELHI: India's year-on-year inflation rate fell to its lowest in 103 weeks at the end of July, the industry ministry said on Sunday.

The ministry in a statement said the inflation rate measured by the wholesale price index fell to 7.56 percent in the week ending July 29 from 7.65 percent in the previous week.

India's inflation rate dropped to a 5.4 percent low in July 1993 from a high of 17 percent in August 1991 when the government launched a radical economic reform programme aimed at fiscal austerity and liberalisation.

But it rose again and passed 11 percent in March this year.

Finance Secretary Montek Singh Ahluwalia, the most senior official in the Finance Ministry, told Reuters last week he expected inflation to continue falling over the next two or three months.

Barring three weeks in May, June and July, India's inflation rate measured weekly has been on the decline. It has been in the single digits for 18 weeks in a row.

The inflation rate has been below 8.0 percent for the fourth successive week.-Reuter