Retail inflation declines to 18-month low of 4.7% in March; Industrial production rises 1.1%

Retail inflation fell to an 18-month low of 4.7 per cent in April mainly due to cooling food prices, government data showed on Friday. It was for the second month in a row that Consumer Price Index (CPI) based inflation remained within the RBI's comfort zone of below 6 per cent.

The retail inflation based on Consumer Price Index (CPI) was 5.66 per cent in March 2023 and 7.79 per cent in the year-ago period. Retail inflation in April is the lowest since October 2021 when it was at 4.48 per cent.

According to the National Statistical Office, the inflation in the food basket was 3.84 per cent in April, as against 4.79 per cent in March and 8.31 per cent in the year-ago period.

Retail inflation rose from 5.7 per cent in December 2022 to 6.4 per cent in February 2023 on the back of higher prices of cereals, milk and fruits and slower deflation in vegetable prices.

Reserve Bank of India has projected the CPI inflation at 5.2 per cent for FY2023-24, with 5.1 per cent in Q1, 5.4 per cent in Q2, 5.4 per cent in Q3, and 5.2 per cent in Q4, and risks evenly balanced.

Industrial production rises 1.1 pc in March, 5.1 pc in 2022-23 fiscal

India's industrial production rose 1.1 per cent in March, according to official data released on Friday. Factory output measured in terms of the Index of Industrial Production (IIP) grew 2.2 per cent in March 2022.

The data released by the National Statistical Office (NSO) showed that the manufacturing sector's output increased 0.5 per cent in March 2023.

Mining output rose 6.8 per cent during the month under review. Power output declined by 1.6 in March. The IIP grew 5.1 per cent in 2022-23 as against a growth of 11.4 per cent in 2021-22.