India wholesale prices ease in October, encourage RBI to adopt further easing measures

Wholesale prices in India eased during the month of October, encouraging the RBI to undertake further easing measures in the next monetary policy meeting scheduled in December. However, prices rose for the 17th consecutive month in October.

India's wholesale prices rose at a slower-than-expected pace in October, gaining 3.39 percent from a year earlier, data released by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry showed Tuesday. The data compared with a 3.75 percent annual rise forecast by economists in a Reuters poll. In September, prices rose a provisional 3.57 percent.

Further, last month, wholesale food prices rose 4.34 percent year-on-year, compared with a provisional 5.75 percent gain in September, data showed.

The recent demonetization move by the Narendra Modi-led Indian government could prove to be disinflationary in the near term and therefore strengthen the case for the RBI to ease in December.

Last week, GoI abolished the circulation of INR500 and INR1,000 notes in order to curb black money. Further, Modi suggested the Indian citizens to exchange the respective notes from any commercial banks or nearby post office from November 10 to December 30.

The RBI next bi-monthly two-day monetary policy meeting is scheduled to be held on December 6-7. It is widely expected that the current trend of lower inflation expectations will space RBI Governor Urjit Patel for further monetary easing.

Meanwhile, at 9:25GMT, the USD/INR currency pair was trading 0.28 percent lower at 67.66, compared to previous close of 67.85.