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Wednesday November 4, 08:10 PM
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POLL - Inflation seen at 1.64 pct on Oct 24
By Boby Michael
MUMBAI (Reuters) - India's annual inflation rate is forecast to have edged up to 1.64 percent as at Oct. 24 from 1.51 percent a week earlier, with food prices expected to have risen marginally, a Reuters poll of 20 analysts showed on Wednesday.
Analysts said higher fuel and manufactured goods prices could contribute to WPI inflation in the weeks ahead.
"We expect the prices of fuel and manufactured goods to push up the rate of inflation in the coming months, while food prices should see a seasonal moderation in November and December," said Sonal Varma, an economist at Nomura.
The food articles index in WPI rose an annual 12.85 percent as on Oct. 17, slower than 13.34 percent in the previous week.
The monthly consumer price inflation was at 11.64 percent for September little changed from 11.72 percent a month earlier, government data showed last week.
The central bank has said the divergence in CPI and WPI rates
was mainly due to a sharp rise in food prices, which have higher
weightage in CPI.
The Reserve Bank raised its fiscal year-end projection of wholesale price inflation to 6.5 percent with an upward bias from 5 percent at a policy review last month, although most analysts expect it to be above 7 percent.
The WPI data is expected around noon (0630 GMT) on Thursday.
It is more closely watched than the consumer price index, which
contains fewer items.
The cabinet last month approved switching over to monthly release of wholesale inflation data from its current weekly format to capture the prices of manufactured goods more accurately and in line with global practices.
The government also said it would change the base year to 2004 from 1993/94 currently, likely from Nov. 14.
(Additional reporting by Mumbai Treasury; Editing by Malini Menon)
