Retail inflation cools down to 2.3% in November; Lower fuel, food prices prime factors

India’s consumer retail inflation has cooled down to 2.3 per cent in November, according to the provisional data released by the government on Wednesday.

Consumer inflation in the previous month stood at a final 3.38 per cent. (Image: AFP)

New Delhi: India’s consumer retail inflation has cooled down to 2.30 per cent in November, according to the provisional data released by the government on Wednesday. The recent data make the retail inflation of this month is the second lowest since 1.46 per cent recorded in June last year. The numbers stood at 4.88 per cent during the same time last year and was recorded at 3.38 per cent last month. Determined by the Consumer Price Index (CPI), the recent figures were better than what was predicted by the economists. According to news agency Reuters, the retail inflation was expected at 2.80 per cent in November in a poll of 40 economists. If the consensus is realised, the November data will not only mark inflation below the RBI’s medium-term target of 4 per cent for a fourth straight month but also be the first time since July 2017 it was below 3 per cent, the report added further. “We expect headline CPI inflation to have slowed...during November in a broad-based manner. Food prices are likely to have continued to remain benign. Transportation costs are also estimated to have softened due to a fall in global crude oil prices,” economist Shashank Mendiratta had said. CPI is the prime price gauge that is tracked by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). Consumer inflation in the previous month stood at a final 3.38 per cent, the Central Statistics Office (CSO) said in its statement. During the previous RBI Monetary Policy Committee meeting held on December 5, the former Governor Urjit Patel had said that broad-based weakening of food prices and the sharp decline in international crude oil prices imparts a downward bias to the headline inflation trajectory going forward. However, there has been a broad-based increase in inflation in non-food groups, Patel had said. Largely driven by a decrease in fruits, vegetable prices have made consumer food price index record de-growth of 2.61 per cent in November, from (-) 0.86 per cent in October.