Retail inflation dips to 4.17 per cent in July

New Delhi, Aug 13: Retail inflation eased in July to 4.17 per cent - after touching a five-month high of 5 per cent in June - as food price rise showed some moderation.

However, India's retail inflation remained above the 4 per cent medium-term target of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), strengthening views it may raise rates at its October meeting.

Based on Consumer Price Index (CPI), inflation for June has also been revised downwards to 4.92 per cent from the earlier estimate of 5 per cent, as per the Central Statistics Office (CSO) data released today.

Analysts polled by Reuters had forecast July's annual increase in the consumer price index at 4.51 percent, compared with June's 5.00 percent.

Its previous low was in October 2017 at 3.58 per cent. As for year-on-year comparison, retail inflation had increased by 2.36 per cent in July last year.

The CSO data revealed that inflation in vegetables declined by (-) 2.19 per cent last month, compared to 7.8 per cent in June.

The rate of price rise in fruits slowed down 6.98 per cent, as against over 10 per cent in the previous month.

As per the data, the inflation in protein rich items like meat and fish, and also milk was also slower in July compared to the previous month. However, inflation in the 'fuel and light' segment based on the changes in the CPI increased to 7.96 per cent from 7.14 in the previous month.

The prices for the data are collected from selected towns by the Field Operations Division of NSSO and from selected villages by the Department of Posts.

Price data are received through web portals, maintained by the National Informatics Centre.