India’s retail inflation eases to 10-month low of 4.85% in March

Retail inflation decreased to a 10-month low of 4.85% in March on a yearly basis from 5.09% in February last month, according to federal government information launched on Friday, April 12, 2024.

A survey performed by economic experts from Reuters had actually forecasted retail inflation to come down to 4.91%.

The inflation rate has actually remained within the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) tolerance series of 2-6%. Compared to the previous month’s reduction of -0.11%, the inflation rate increased to 0.16% in the most recent duration, on a consecutive basis.

India’s commercial production leapt to a four-month high at 5.7% in March based on information from the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation. The commercial production was 4.2% in the previous month.

Food inflation, making up almost half of the total customer rate basket, increased by 8.52% in March, a small reduction from the 8.66% boost in February. Fuel costs saw a year-on-year decrease of 3.2% in March, compared to a 0.77% fall in February.

The inflation rates in rural and metropolitan locations stood at 5.45% and 4.14%, respectively, revealing a reduction from 5.51% and 5.89% tape-recorded in the exact same month the previous year.

Rates of cereals increased to 8.37% from 7.60% a month previously, while meat and fish increased to 6.36% from 5.21% in March. Both veggies and pulses revealed a minor down pattern.

In general, food and drinks inflation stood at 7.68% in March, below 7.76% in February.

Apart from food, fuel and light inflation decreased even more from -0.77% in February to -3.24% in March, while real estate inflation dropped to 2.77% from 2.88% sequentially.

The most recent inflation information follow the RBI’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) statement on April 5, where they chose to keep the policy repo rate at 6.5% for the seventh successive time.

According to the most recent projection from the reserve bank, Consumer Price Index (CPI) inflation is predicted to be 4.5% for the existing fiscal year.