India’s retail inflation eases to 5.72% in December – lowest in a year
In November, the price rise indicator stood at 5.88%.
India’s retail inflation came down marginally to 5.72% in December from 5.88% in November, government data released on Monday showed. This is the lowest that the price rise indicator has been in a year.
For the second consecutive month now, retail inflation has stayed under the Reserve Bank of India’s upper tolerance level. The central bank aims to keep inflation between 2% and 6%. In November, inflation had settled within the RBI’s tolerance level for the first time in 2022.
The data released by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation on Thursday also showed that food inflation eased to 4.05% in December from 4.67% in November.
Meanwhile, India’s factory output increased to 7.1% in November as against 4% in October, government data released on Thursday showed. Mining output also increased to 9.7% and power generation increased by 12.7%.
On December 7, the Reserve Bank of India had also said that the worst of inflation is behind us, but warned of no room for complacency and hiked the repo rate by 35 basis points to 6.25%. The central bank had projected inflation to remain above 4% for the next 12 months.