Inflation fell to 33-week low of 5.42 per cent for the week ended January 15 mainly due to lower prices of essential items like vegetables, fruits, tea, edible oil and naphtha.
The Wholesale Price Index based inflation fell marginally by 0.18 during the week from 5.6 per cent in the previous week despite a slight rise in manufactured product prices.
Fiscal and monetary measures by the government and the Reserve Bank helped the general price level to slide to 5.42 per cent from 6.55 per cent a year ago.
However, finance ministry officials are keeping their fingers crossed over the future trend in inflation as global oil prices continue to be volatile.