New Delhi, July 14 (IANS): Even as pulses and onions remained costly, India's annual inflation rate based on wholesale prices continued in the negative territory in June, falling further to (-)2.4 percent from (-)2.36 percent for the month before, official data showed on Tuesday.

The annual rate of inflation, as per the official wholesale price index, stood at 5.66 percent in the corresponding month of the previous year, according to data released by the commerce and industry ministry.

Reflecting the dichotomy over retail and wholesale prices in the country, data released on Monday by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) showed that rise in food and fuel prices had propped the country's consumer price index inflation to 5.40 percent in June from 5.01 percent in May.

The consumer price index data also showed that rural areas were relatively impacted more with an annual retail inflation rate of 6.07 percent, against 4.55 percent for urban areas. The food and beverage sub-index that has the highest weight rose by 5.48 percent from 4.80 percent in May.

The commerce ministry data showed that the wholesale inflation rate rose in June despite marginal increases in the all the three major sub-indices compared with May. The spikes were 1.4 percent for primary articles, 0.6 percent for fuels and 0.1 percent for manufactured products.

Among articles of consumption by the masses, the annual inflation for pulses was whopping 33.67 percent in June, followed by 18.54 percent for onions, 7.47 percent for fruits and 5.18 percent for milk. But prices fell 52.40 percent for potatoes and and 2.25 percent for eggs, meat and fish.

The data also reflected the lowering of prices in the fuels sub-index during the month in review. The rates of inflation were (-)9.7 percent for petrol, (-)11.86 percent for high-speed diesel and (-)4.73 percent for cooking gas.