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India inflation slows to lowest rate in 3 years
April 15, 2013, 10:36 am

[Getty Images]

[Getty Images]

India’s headline inflation slowed to the lowest rate in more than three years in March.

The wholesale-price index rose 5.96 per cent from a year earlier, after climbing 6.84 per cent in February, the commerce ministry said in a statement in New Delhi today.

The lower-than-expected headline inflation briefly buoyed the stock and bond prices as investors read it as a sign the central bank was more likely to cut rates when it next reviews policy on May 3.

Finance minister Palaniappan Chidambaram is currently touring Canada and the US in a bid to attract foreign investment.

The commerce ministry today revised January inflation to 7.31 per cent from an earlier estimate of 6.62 per cent.

The Budget Session of the Indian Parliament will resume on April 22, after about a month-long recess.

The average rates of economic growth for India above eight per cent are possible in the medium term, prime minister Manmohan Singh asserted earlier in April.

Trying to dispel the doubts about the India growth story, the Indian prime minister said: “We will prove the prophet of doom wrong.”

Dr Singh had also asserted that the government will further relax the FDI policy and take steps to bring down inflation.

With inputs from Agencies