Inflation in India drops to 4-month low, 5.4%

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Mumbai, India • India benchmark inflation rate eased to 5.4 percent in June, the lowest level in four months, the government said Monday.

The data comes as Asia's third-largest economy is trying to revive growth while battling a rising cost of living.

Still, a weak start to the annual monsoon rains season has been stoking worries that prices for food may soon shoot up, hurting the hundreds of millions of poor Indians who live on less than $2 per day.

The increase in the Wholesale Price Index for June was down from 6 percent in May. India's government has set a target of between 4 and 5 percent as an acceptable level.

Food prices rose 2 percent over the previous month, the government's public information bureau said. Prices for "non-food articles declined by 1.1 percent from May.