Encouraged by the decline in prices during November, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee has said inflation is expected to decline to 6 percent by March 2011.

“I am hoping it to be around 6 per cent by March,” Mukherjee told reporters in New Delhi on Tuesday.

The finance minister said after quite some time food inflation has become “very moderate”, adding it has come down to single digits.

Mukherjee’s comment came after the latest government data released on Tuesday showed inflation declining to 7.48 percent in November, mainly on lowering of pressure on certain food items.

Inflation had stood at 8.58 percent in October. It was 4.50 percent in November 2009.

This is the fourth consecutive month when the overall inflation has been in the single digit. It had remained over 10 percent for six months till July.

As per the WPI data, prices of primary articles — food, non-food articles and minerals — shot up by 13 percent on an annual basis.

Inflation of food articles alone stood at 9.41 percent, a far cry from the corresponding month in last year when it was as high as 16.73.

Prices of certain food items declined on an year-on-year.

While wheat became cheaper by 1.49 percent, pulses fell by 8.37 percent and vegetables overall went down by 4.59 percent.

During the month, fuel and power prices went up by 10.32 percent, while manufactured goods became expensive by 4.56 percent on an annual basis.

Within manufactured products, however, sugar prices eased by 10.97 percent and leather and leather goods by 1.77 percent on an annual basis.

“There has be moderate influence on consumer price inflation also,” the Finance Minister said.

Earlier this month, after tabling the Mid-Year Analysis of the Economy in Parliament, Mukherjee had exuded confidence of the overall inflation falling to 6 percent by end of the fiscal.

The latest figure also bears out the projection of Chief Economic Advisor Kaushik Basu who had earlier said that inflation in November will be down to 7.5 percent.