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.