New Delhi, June 30: In these times of rising prices and skyrocketing interest rates, the only good news seems to be coming from the Met department which confirmed its earlier forecast of a near normal monsoon rainfall this season.

The Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) on Monday said rainfall for the whole country in the June-September season was likely to be 100 per cent of the Long Period Average (LPA). This is one percentage point more than what it had predicted at the start of the season in May.

The likelihood of normal rainfall is good news for the Indian economy which has been reeling from record inflation for the past few months. Normal rainfall is extremely vital for the agriculture sector, which provides livelihood to a majority of Indians.

IMD said two of the four broad geographical regions were likely to get excess rainfall this season. Both North-East and Central India were expected to get 101 per cent of the LPA. North-West India, on the other hand, was likely to receive 96 per cent while the southern peninsula could expect 98 per cent.

The early arrival of monsoon in Delhi and northern areas of the country was not likely to make much difference to the overall rainfall in the country but it had certainly resulted in an extremely wet June. The accumulated seasonal rainfall over the country as a whole during June 1 to 29 was 121 per cent of its LPA.

July was expected to be slightly drier, IMD said, predicting 98 per cent of LPA rainfall in the month.

This year's monsoon had arrived on the Kerala coast on May 31, a day before its scheduled date of June 1. Thereafter, it progressed rapidly northwards, reaching Konkan and Goa by June 7. The rapid progress continued with monsoon reaching Gujarat, Vidarbha, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand by June 12. By June 15, it had arrived in Delhi, two weeks earlier than normal.

Though happy with the progress, the Met department had refused to read too much into the early arrival, saying it would not have much bearing on the overall rainfall during the four-month season. The latest forecast seems to confirm that trend.