India's headline inflation eased to a five-month low of 6.16 percent in December from a 14-month high, helped by a softening in vegetable prices, government data showed on Wednesday.
The wholesale price index's annual rise compared with a 7.0 percent jump forecast by economists in a Reuters poll. In November, wholesale prices, India's main inflation measure, rose 7.52 percent, their fastest pace in 14 months.
The reading for October headline inflation was revised to 7.24 percent from 7.0 percent.
(Read more: Is India's recoveryalready over?)
Food prices rose 13.68 percent year-on-year last month, much slower than an annual rise of 19.93 percent in November.
Cooling in food prices slowed down retail inflation to a three-month low of 9.87 percent in December, data showed earlier this week.