India’s retail inflation eased to 6.71% in July from 7.01% in June, government data showed on Tuesday.

Despite the decline, the price rise indicator remained above the upper limit of the Reserve Bank of India’s prescribed range for the seventh straight month. The central bank aims to keep retail inflation in the range of 2% to 6%.

In July, food inflation dropped to 6.75% from 7.75% in June.

At 12.89%, inflation was the highest during the month for spices, followed by vegetables at 10.90%, prepared meals and snacks at 7.55% and oils and fats at 7.52%. However, inflation in the fuel and light segment rose to 11.76% from 10.39% in July.

On August 2, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had said that the Centre was not in denial about inflation in India and that it was taking steps to bring it under 7%.

“The Indian economy is in a better situation compared to the economies of developed nations,” Sitharaman had said in the Rajya Sabha. “But that does not mean the government is running away from saying... because of imported inflation and global commodity crisis, we are being impacted.”

On July 9, RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das had said that inflation in India could cool down in the second half of this financial year.

Meanwhile, the growth in India’s industrial production was recorded at 12.3% in June as compared to 13.8% in the same month last year, data released by the government on Tuesday showed.

The growth in the manufacturing sector was 12.5% in June against 13.2% in the same period in 2021. Output in the mining sector dropped to 7.5% from 23.1% last year. Power generation increased to 16.4% in June from 8.3%.