Lower fuel prices have eased India’s inflation, the Ministry of Commerce said Thursday.

The wholesale price index _ India’s most-watched inflation measure _ eased to 8.90 percent for the week ended Nov. 8, down from 8.98 percent for the prior week.

This time last year, inflation was just 3.2 percent.

The nation’s central bank has said it would like to see inflation, which hit a 13-year high above 12 percent in August, below 5 percent as soon as possible.

The Reserve Bank of India has struggled to balance its desire to cool inflation with the need to kickstart India’s faltering economic growth. Economists say the continuing slide in inflation will make it easier for the Reserve Bank to cut the nation’s key interest rate further.

Citibank recently joined other forecasters in downgrading its growth outlook for India. Even factoring in an additional 200 basis point rate cut, India’s economy will likely grow by 6.6 percent this fiscal year and 5.5 percent next fiscal year, Citibank’s India economist, Rohini Malkani, said in a recent report.