India’s Retail Inflation Eases to 5.09% in February
India’s retail inflation slightly dropped to 5.09% in February compared to 5.10% in the previous month, according to data released by the Ministry of Statistics & Programme Implementation. This is in line with the expectations of economists polled by Reuters, who predicted a decrease to 5.02%.
India’s retail inflation eased marginally to 5.09 per cent on an annual basis in February as against 5.10 per cent in the previous month, data released by the Ministry of Statistics & Programme Implementation showed on Tuesday. A Reuters poll of 42 economists had estimated the number to come down to 5.02 per cent.
The number has remained within the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) tolerance band of 2-6 per cent.
On a sequential basis, the inflation rate increased to 0.16 per cent against a contraction of (-)0.11 per cent in the previous month.
The rural inflation rate remained unchanged at 5.34 per cent, meanwhile, the urban inflation rate declined to 4.78 per cent from 4.92 per cent in January.
The food inflation for February stood at 8.66 per cent versus 8.30 per cent recorded in January.
The vegetable inflation surged to 30.25 per cent from 27.03 per cent in January. In addition, the fuel and light inflation witnessed a contraction of (-)0.77 per cent as against a contraction of (-)0.60 per cent.
IIP Data
India’s industrial production grew 3.8 per cent in January 2024, revealed the data provided by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) on Tuesday.
The data showed that the manufacturing sector’s output witnessed a growth of 3.2 per cent in January 2024, down from 4.5 per cent in the year-ago month.
In January this year, mining production rose 5.9 per cent, and power output increased 5.6 per cent.
The IIP grew 5.9 per cent during April 2023 to January 2024 compared to a 5.5 per cent expansion in the year-ago period.
RBI’s Inflation Forecast
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI), which held its repo rate at 6.50 per cent for a sixth consecutive meeting on February 8, highlighted “large and repetitive food price shocks” as one of the biggest risks to the ongoing disinflation trend.
