India’s retail inflation fell from 5.66 percent in March to 4.7 percent in April
New Delhi:
India’s retail inflation fell from 5.66 per cent in March to 4.7 per cent in April, the first time since November 2021 that it fell below 5 per cent.
Food inflation in April eased further to 3.8 per cent from 4.7 per cent in March.
The significant decline in inflation was driven by a corresponding decline in the prices of food and beverages, which had a weight of 54 per cent in the overall rate.
The Index of Industrial Production (IIP), which shows the rate of growth of various sectors, declined to 1.1 per cent in March from 5.6 per cent in February.
“The price data was collected from 1,114 urban markets and 1,181 villages,” the government said in a statement.
This was the second month in a row that consumer price index (CPI) based inflation remained within the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) comfort zone of below 6 per cent.
RBI has projected CPI inflation for FY2024 at 5.2 per cent.
While food and fuel prices contributed to the decline in inflation, there is also a base effect at play. The inflation rate in April 2022 was pegged at 7.8 per cent, much higher than the RBI’s limit of 6 per cent. Therefore, the rate of inflation is lower than the higher prices of the previous year.