Retail inflation rises to 10.79 per cent

February 12, 2013 01:56 pm | Updated June 13, 2016 05:20 am IST - New Delhi

Sugar turned more expensive by 12.95 per cent in January. Photo:  K.K. Mustafah

Sugar turned more expensive by 12.95 per cent in January. Photo: K.K. Mustafah

Rising for the fourth consecutive month, retail inflation remained in double digits at 10.79 per cent in January, driven by higher prices of vegetables, edible oil, cereals and protein-based items.

The retail inflation had stood at 10.56 per cent in December, 9.90 per cent in November and 9.75 per cent in October, 2012.

The vegetables basket in January recorded the highest inflation of 26.11 per cent among all the constituents that make the Consumer Price Index (CPI), according to data released today.

Vegetables were followed by the oil and fats segment at 14.98 per cent. Meat, fish and egg became 13.73 per cent more expensive during the month.

While, cereals and pulses became dearer by 14.90 per cent and 12.76 per cent respectively on an annual basis, sugar turned more expensive by 12.95 per cent.

Clothing and footwear witnessed 11 per cent increase in prices during the month.

In urban areas, retail inflation rose to 10.73 per cent in January from 10.42 per cent in the previous month. The CPI for rural population increased to 10.88 per cent during the month from 10.74 per cent in December.

The data for wholesale price index (WPI)-based inflation is expected on Thursday. The WPI figures for December stood at 7.24 per cent, much higher than RBI’s comfort level of 5-6 per cent.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in its monetary policy last month had slashed its key interest rates by 0.25 per cent and released Rs. 18,000 crore additional liquidity into the system to perk up growth through reduced cost of borrowing.

The RBI has forecast the March end WPI inflation at 6.8 per cent.

Meanwhile, industrial output growth rate contracted by 0.6 per cent in December, 2012, compared to a growth of 2.7 per cent in same month a year ago.

0 / 0
Sign in to unlock member-only benefits!
  • Access 10 free stories every month
  • Save stories to read later
  • Access to comment on every story
  • Sign-up/manage your newsletter subscriptions with a single click
  • Get notified by email for early access to discounts & offers on our products
Sign in

Comments

Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.

We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.