After hitting a 17-month high of 5.21% in the month of December 2017, India’s retail inflation cooled down to 5.07% in January 2018, due to easing prices of vegetables, fruits and fuel components. The consumer price index (CPI) number for January was in line with the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI’s) revised inflation projection of 5.1% for the quarter ended March, up from its previous forecast of 4.3-4.7%. The CPI inflation stood at 3.17% in January 2017. Besides, consumer food price inflation, a metric to gauge changes in monthly kitchen costs, was at 4.7% in January 2018, against 4.96% in December, and 0.61% in January 2017.
As per the data of the Central Statistics Office (CSO), Ministry of Statistics and Programme, the Consumer Price Index (CPI) (Rural, Urban, Combined) on Base 2012=100 for January 2018, stood at 5.21%, 4.93% and 5.07% respectively, compared to 3.36%, 2.90% and 3.17% respectively in January 2017. The index value of CPI for combined stood at 136.9. The data also showed that Consumer Food Price Index (CFPI) for all India Rural and Urban for January 2018 stood at 5.05% and 4.06%, respectively, compared to 1.14% and (-) 0.31%, respectively in January 2017. The index value of CFPI for combined stood at 138.1 for the month of January.
Inflation in the vegetable segment slowed to 26.97% in January as against 29.13% in December, while prices of pulses and products continued to fall (-) 20.19%, as compared with (-) 23.47% in December. Prices of fruits too rose at a slower pace of 6.24% in January, as against 6.63% recorded in the preceding month. Prices of Egg and Milk & products came at 8.70% and 4.21% respectively, in January 2018, as against 9.48% and 4.37% respectively in the December 2017. Besides, for the fuel and light segment, inflation was 7.73% last month compared to 7.90% in December. Housing inflation grew at 8.33% in January, as compared with 8.25% in December.