Food inflation, which accounts for nearly half of the overall consumer price basket, moderated to 2.91% in May against 3.84% in April.
"Food inflation benefited from a sequential fall in the prices of fruits and oils," said Suvodeep Rakshit, economist at Kotak Institutional Equities.
Core inflation, which had been easing after being a key concerns for months, remained below 6% for a third consecutive month.
According to two economists' estimates, core inflation was 5.02% in May, compared with 5.2% in April.
The Indian government does not release figures of core inflation, which strips out volatile food and energy prices.
Persons:
Suvodeep Rakshit, Devendra Kumar Pant, Nikunj Ohri, Aftab Ahmed, Andrew Heavens
Organizations:
Reserve Bank of India's, Reuters, El, Thomson
Locations:
DELHI, Asia, India