Wholesale price rise slowed down to 3.51 per cent for the week ended April 1 even though essential items like vegetables; industrial fuels and some manufactured products became costlier.
Inflation fell by 0.45 per cent to 3.51 per cent mainly due to cheaper wheat, some edible oils, soyabean, sunflower, black tea leaf, sooji, atta, maida, khandsari and jaggery.
Inflation rate was higher at 5.7 per cent in the same period last year, indicating the base-year effect.
Wholesale price index was up by 0.4 per cent to 197.7 points due to an overall increase in prices of primary, fuel and manufactured items and it was 191 points a year ago, the government data released on Thursday showed.