Retail Inflation Rises to 7.61% in October, Highest in Six Years

This is the highest retail inflation in more than six years, rising on the back of prices of vegetables and pulses.

Image used for representation. 

(Photo: iStock / Altered by The Quint) 

The growth rate of India’s retail inflation has inched up in October, with the Consumer Price Inflation (CPI) standing at 7.61 percent in October as compared to 7.27 percent in September, government data released on Thursday, 12 November, showed.

This is the highest retail inflation in more than six years, increasing on the back of soaring prices of vegetables and pulses, BloombergQuint reported. The previous high was recorded in May 2014, the report said.

A Bloomberg poll of 38 economists had reportedly predicted that the retail inflation in October would stand at 7.3 percent.

With this, the retail inflation has stayed well above the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) upper margin of 6 percent. The RBI has been mandated by the Centre to keep retail inflation within the range of 4 percent with a margin of 2 percent.

Meanwhile, the Consumer Food Price Index (CFPI) jumped to 11.07 percent in October, up from 10.68 percent in September, Livemint reported.

However, India’s Index of Industrial Production (IIP), which is a measure of the country’s factory output, witnessed a growth of 0.2 percent in the month of September, The Indian Express reported.

(With inputs from Livemint, The Indian Express and BloombergQuint.)