Wholesale prices in India eased to 2.76 percent in the month of January, lower than 3.80 percent in December 2018. Data released by the ministry of commerce and industry showed that Wholesale Price Index (WPI) "for 'All Commodities' (Base: 2011-12=100) for the month of January, 2019 declined by 0.7 percent to 119.2 (provisional) from 120.1 (provisional) for the previous month."

" The annual rate of inflation, based on monthly WPI, stood at 2.76% (provisional) for the month of January, 2019 (over January, 2018) as compared to 3.80% (provisional) for the previous month and 3.02% during the corresponding month of the previous year. Build up inflation rate in the financial year so far was 2.49% compared to a build up rate of 2.47% in the corresponding period of the previous year," the statement said.

WPI marks the price movements in bulk purchases for traders and indicates a broad movement in shop-end prices.

Wholesale inflation data for November has been revised to 4.47 percent from 4.64 percent.

Prices of primary articles, that includes food and accounts for one-fifth of the index, came to 3.54 percent in January as against 2.28 percent in the previous month.

The index for the 'Crude Petroleum & Natural Gas' group declined by 9.2 percent to 83.3 (provisional) from 91.7 (provisional) in December due to lower price of crude petroleum (14 percent). However, the price of natural gas moved up 3 percent.