India’s consumer price index rose 2.1% from a year earlier in June, official data show, the slowest pace in 77 months and well below the 2.5% median forecast in a Reuters survey. The reading sits near the lower bound of the Reserve Bank of India’s 2%-6% target range and extends the down-trend from May’s 2.82%. The moderation was driven by a 1.06% decline in food prices, with vegetable costs plunging 19% thanks to good monsoon rains. Core inflation, which strips out volatile food and fuel items, inched higher to 4.43%. Wholesale prices also slipped into deflation, with the Wholesale Price Index contracting 0.13% year-on-year, its first fall in 19 months, underscoring broad-based disinflationary pressures. RBI Governor Sanjay Malhotra said in a televised interview that the Monetary Policy Committee’s neutral stance gives it room to move "in either direction" and that another rate cut is possible if inflation stays below projections or growth falters. The central bank delivered an unexpected 50-basis-point reduction in June and trimmed banks’ cash-reserve ratio by 100 basis points. Economists, including those at State Bank of India, now see headline inflation averaging about 3% in the next fiscal year and do not rule out a further 25-basis-point cut when the MPC convenes on 4 August.