Wholesale prices fall

NEW DELHI: India’s wholesale prices fell for a 14th straight month in December, declining an annual 0.73 per cent, driven down by tumbling oil prices, government data showed on Thursday. The pace of fall, however, was slower than a 1.15 per cent annual decline forecast by economists in a Reuters poll. In November, the index fell a provisional 1.99 per cent. The wholesale fuel prices dropped 9.15 per cent from a year ago in December, while prices of manufactured goods declined 1.36 per cent year-on-year. Food prices last month, however, gained 8.17 per cent year-on-year, compared with a provisional 5.20 per cent gain in November.