New Delhi, Thursday, June 18, 2009: For the first time since the new wholesale price index (WPI) series started in 1995, India’s annual rate of inflation turned negative, falling to minus 1.61 per cent for the week ended June 6, official data showed on Thursday.

The inflation rate, which was 0.13 per cent in the previous week, had last turned negative in 1977.

The WPI for all commodities rose 0.04 per cent primarily due to a rise in the indices for non-food articles, manufactured products, and fuel, power, light and lubricants, as per data released by the commerce and industry ministry.

While the index for primary articles declined 0.7 per cent, that for fuel and power rose 0.7 per cent. The index for manufactured products rose 0.1 per cent.

The final data for the week ended April 11 showed that the revised annual inflation rate actually stood at 0.96 per cent as against 0.26 percent reported earlier based on provisional figures.