India's wholesale prices fell at a faster-than-expected annual rate of 2.4 per cent in June, their eighth straight decline, mainly on the back of weak fuel prices, government data showed on Tuesday.

The data compared with a 2.2 per cent year-on-year fall forecast by economists in a Reuters poll and a provisional 2.36 per cent annual decline in May.

The wholesale food index rose 2.88 per cent year-on-year, while fuel prices fell 10.03 per cent from a year ago.

Image: Customers crowd amid stacked baskets of tomatoes at a wholesale vegetable and fruit market in Chandigarh. Photograph: Ajay Verma/Reuters