India's retail inflation in July jumped to 7.44 per cent from 4.87 per cent in June, according to the data released by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) on Monday. This is considerably higher than June's figure of 4.87 per cent. In July last year, the CPI inflation was at 6.71 per cent.
The surge in inflation is primarily because of food inflation, which came in at 11.51 per cent. In June, the inflation on the food basket was 4.55 per cent, while in July last year it was 6.69 per cent. The rural inflation in July stood at 7.63 per cent, while the urban inflation for the same month stands at 7.2 per cent. The retail inflation in vegetables year-on-year was 37.43 per cent while the rate of price rise in 'cereals and products' was 13 per cent, showed the data released by the NSO.
The price data are collected from selected 1,114 urban markets and 1,181 villages covering all the states/UTs across the country through personal visits by field staff of Field Operations Division of NSO, MoSPI on a weekly roster.
Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Shaktikanta Das on Thursday during his address on the Monetary Policy Committee's (MPC) said that the rate setting panel has made an upward revision to its inflation forecast for 2023-24, raising it by 30 basis points to 5.4 per cent. Driving the full-year inflation forecast hike was that for the second quarter, which is now seen at 6.2 per cent, a full hundred basis points higher than previously expected because of a sharp hike in vegetable prices.
Meanwhile, India's wholesale price inflation (WPI) stood at -3.48 per cent in May, data released on Monday by the commerce ministry showed. This is the fourth month in a row in July WPI stayed in deflationary zone, though the numbers rose to a three-month high of –1.36 per cent. In June, the WPI inflation was recorded at -4.12 per cent. The lowest wholesale inflation was recorded at –4.76 per cent in October 2015.