NEW DELHI: Retail inflation eased to 6.93 per cent in November from a six-year high of 7.61 per cent in October, though it remained above the comfort level of the Reserve Bank. Barring March, the Consumer Price Index (CPI) inflation remained above six per cent throughout 2020.
According to the latest data released by the Ministry of Statistics & Programme Implementation (MoSPI) on Monday, inflation in food basket or Consumer Food Price Index eased to 9.43 per cent during the month under review as against 11.07 per cent in October and 10.68 per cent in September, even as prices of vegetable mainly onion, potato and tomato stayed higher. On the other hand, Wholesale Price Index (WPI)-based inflation rose to a nine-month high of 1.55 per cent as against 1.48 per cent in October. WPI inflation in October was at an eight-month high due to costlier manufactured products.
According to Aditi Nayar, principal economist at ICRA with a sharp and fairly broad-based sequential increase of 0.8 per cent, the core-WPI inflation rose to a 22-month high of 2.6 per cent in November 2020. “In our view, a rise in inflation for core items, including crude oil and mineral oils, would be partly offset by a base-effect led decline in the food inflation in December 2020, resulting in a fairly stable print for the
ongoing month,” Nayar said.
RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das, in its latest monetary policy committee meeting, pegged CPI inflation at 6.8 per cent for October-December quarter before easing marginally to 5.8 per cent in Q4 of 2020-21.