India's retail inflation for November rose to 5.55 per cent as against 4.87 per cent in October, according to the latest data released by the National Statistical Office (NSO) on Tuesday. Though the headline inflation is still under the Reserve Bank of India (RBI)'s comfort zone of below 6 per cent, it has now been above the medium-term target of 4 per cent for 50 consecutive months.
Retail inflation in November surged up to three-month high because of unfavourable base effect and resurgence in prices of vegetables and pulses. Inflation had been declining since August when it touched 6.83 per cent.
According to NSO data, the rural inflation was recorded at 5.85 per cent in November as against 5.12 per cent in October. Food inflation surged to 8.70 per cent for November, as against 6.61 per cent in October.
In the latest Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) announcement, RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das said that the MPC had retained the retail inflation projection for the current financial year at 5.4 per cent. Earlier, the growth projection for FY24 was increased to 7 per cent from 6.5 per cent. The RBI projected the CPI inflation at 5.4 per cent for 2023-24, with a reading of 5.6 per cent in the third quarter and 5.2 per cent in the last quarter.
Notably, the MPC meet happened against the backdrop of inflation reducing to 4.87 per cent in October, while the data for inflation in November is set to be announced next week. The government has mandated the RBI to maintain CPI inflation at 4 per cent, with a margin of 2 per cent on either side.
The price data are collected from selected 1,114 urban markets and 1,181 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 November 2023, the NSO collected prices from 99.9 per cent villages and 98.6 per cent urban markets while the market-wise prices reported therein were 90.0 per cent for rural and 92.2 per cent for urban.