Retail inflation marginally dips to 6.69% in August against 6.73% in July

The retail inflation has grown beyond the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) upper margin of 6 per cent

New Delhi: Retail inflation growth across the country eased to 6.69 per cent in the month of August, the data released by the Ministry of Statistics & Programme Implementation (MoSPI) on Monday (September 14) showed.

The retail inflation which is measured by the Consumer Price Index (CPI) had risen 6.93 per cent in the month of July. The government had last month revised the CPI for June to 6.23 per cent from 6.09 per cent.

Prior to June’s data, the government had not released the headline retail inflation data in April and May. However, in April, it had revised the CPI data for the month of March to 5.84 per cent from 5.91 per cent.

In its statement, the govt said: "The Price data are collected from representative and selected 1114 urban markets and 1181 villages covering all States/UTs through personal visits by field staff of Field Operations Division of NSO, MoSPI on a weekly roster. During the month of August, 2020, NSO collected prices from 96.1% villages and 96.4% urban markets while the market-wise numbers of prices reported therein were 78.6% for rural and 84.4% for urban as compared to 87.9% for rural and 93.9% for urban in February 2020."

The CPI core inflation was recorded at 5.8 per cent as compared to 5.7 per cent, all comparisons made month on month.

The combined food price inflation during the month was at 9.05 percent versus 9.62 per cent. The vegetable inflation rose marginally to 11.41 per cent from 11.29 per cent while fuel & light inflation increased to 3.10 percent from 2.80 per cent. 

Further, housing inflation during August was recorded at 3.10 per cent as against 3.25 per cent in July.

Clothing & Footwear inflation was at 2.77 per cent versus 2.91 per cent; Cereals inflation at 5.92 per cent versus 6.96 per cent and Pulses inflation was at 14.44 per cent versus 15.92 per cent.

The retail inflation has grown beyond the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) upper margin of 6 per cent. The government has mandated the Indian central bank to keep inflation within the range of 4 per cent with a margin of 2 per cent on either side.