India's retail inflation, measured by the Consumer Price Index (CPI) , touched a ten-month high in March, increasing to 3.40%, revealed data released by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) on Monday.
After touching a record low of 0.25%, it has increased marginally to 0.71% in November, before crossing 1% by the end of the year. Food inflation stood at 3.71% and that of housing at 1.97℅. Rural inflation that stood at 3.63% has surpassed the urban inflation that was at 3.11% in March.
Despite the increase over the last few months, the headline inflation still managed to remain much below the RBI’s tolerable band between 2-6%. The spike in the retail inflation has been mainly due to the adjustment in the base year, alongside the other changes made in the methodology. Personal care, social protection and miscellaneous goods and services inflation stood at 18.65%.
Among the states, Telangana accounted for the highest retail inflation where it stood at 5.94% followed by Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu.
MoSPI has announced changes to the composition of the inflation basket, sharply reducing the weight of food and beverages—from 54% to 37%—often blamed for volatility in the headline. The ministry has released the inflation figure under the new series of the CPI, where they have changed the base year to 2024.