By IANS,
New Delhi : The dip in the rate of inflation has brought cheer and hope to the Indian National Congress (INC) as it believes the moderation in the rate will bring back the public’s faith in its economic policies leading to more votes for it in the states that are going to the polls starting Friday.
“We have stated time and again that rising inflation was due to rising prices of crude oil in the international market. Now the prices of crude oil have come down, and so has the inflation rate,” Congress spokesperson Shakeel Ahmad told IANS.
“Parties opposed to Congress tried to blame the Congress government. Now the prices of commodities have also come down. This will have a positive impact for the Congress party in the coming elections,” Ahmad said.
Six Indian states go to the polls from Nov 14.
India’s annual rate of inflation fell sharply to 8.98 percent for the week ended Nov 1 from 10.72 percent in the previous week.
The sharp fall of 1.3 percent in the official wholesale price index in a matter of just one week was mainly due to a 3.4 percent decline in the index for fuels and 0.7 percent in manufactured products.
The statistics, released by the commerce ministry, also pointed out that primary articles, which have a weight of 22.02 percent in the general index, also fell 0.4 percent during the week under review.
The annual rate of inflation stood at 3.35 percent during the corresponding week of last year.