Evading the negative zone for the twelfth week in a row, inflation inched down to 0.48 per cent in the week ending May 23 from 0.61 per cent in the previous week. Contrastingly, inflation was close to 9 per cent in the corresponding week last year. If the wholesale price index remains at the same level next week too, inflation may well touch zero per cent as the WPI was at the same level in the corresponding week last year.

According to the finance ministry, the deseasonalised rate of inflation, which measures inflation change over a shorter span of time as against annually, had been negative since September but has firmed up at 3.2 per cent on the basis of WPI figures. Inflation in the food index, on the other hand, remains much higher at 9 per cent.