Inflation based on Consumer Price Index, known as retail inflation, for the month of January eased to 4.06% from 4.59% in December, showed government data released on Friday. Retail inflation, an indicator of price rise has now come down for the second straight month, since it rose to 7.61% in October – a high of more than six years.

The figures for the last month also means that retail inflation is now within the Reserve Bank of India’s mandated range of 4% to 6%. The data on retail inflation is mostly factored in by the central bank during its preparation of the bi-monthly monetary policy, reported The Indian Express.

The fall in inflation may be attributed to food inflation, which went down from 3.41% in December to 4.59% in January.

Meanwhile, the Index of Industrial Production grew by 1.9% in December, government data showed. IIP had contracted by 1.9% in November. This figure was 0.4% in the same month in the 2019-’20 financial year.

Mining output fell by 4.8%, while power generation rose 5.1% in December, and the manufacturing sector expanded by 1.6%.

Last month, the IIP data came as a dampener to hopes of an economic revival, as factory output in the country had grown 3.6% in October, the highest since a countrywide lockdown was imposed due to the coronavirus. The industrial output had contracted in each of the months between March and August, before registering growth in September and October.