Food Inflation Climbs to 7.74%; Retail Inflation Remains Above RBI’s 4% Medium-Term Target for Fourth Consecutive Month

New Delhi, October 12 (HS): In a setback for consumers, India’s retail inflation rose to 5.54 per cent in September, driven by a surge in food prices. Retail inflation, measured by the Consumer Price Index (CPI), stood at 4.83 per cent in August.

According to data released by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation on Monday, this marks the fourth consecutive month in which CPI-based retail inflation has remained above the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) medium-term target of 4 per cent.

Under the new CPI series introduced in January, the September inflation rate reached its highest level recorded so far. Previously, retail inflation stood at 4.38 per cent in June, 4.45 per cent in July and 4.83 per cent in August.

The data showed that food inflation climbed to 7.74 per cent in September, compared with 5.97 per cent in August. During the same period, inflation in rural and urban areas stood at 6.08 per cent and 4.88 per cent, respectively.

Amid persistent inflationary concerns, the Reserve Bank of India had raised the policy repo rate by 0.25 percentage points to 5.50 per cent last week.

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Hindusthan Samachar / Jun Sarkar