It was revealed by the government data on Thursday that for the week ended December 6, India's annual rate of inflation dropped further to 6.84 per cent from 8per cent the week before. The analysts say that the sharp drop was triggered largely by the drop in petrol and diesel prices. During the corresponding week last year, the rate of inflation was 3.84 per cent. 

Furthermore, there was a decline by .1 per cent to 231.1 points from 233.6 points the week before, in the official wholesale price index (WPI) for all commodities. The index for primary articles declined 0.4 per cent to 249 points, from 249.9 points the previous week.

During the week under review, the index for food articles declined by 0.5 per cent while that of non-food articles rose marginally to 234.6 points (provisional) from 234.4 points (provisional).

There was also a decline by .7 percent to 332.1 points (provisional) from 345 (provisional) the previous week in the index for fuels and lubricants.

For the previous week, the index for the manufacturing sector declined by 0.3 percent to 202.4 points (provisional) from 203.1 (provisional).