Remaining within the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) comfort zone, the Consumer Price Index (CPI) based retail inflation continued its downward slide to reach 12-month low of 4.75 per cent in May as compared to 4.83 per cent in April 2024, due to a marginal decline of prices in the food basket. The Consumer Price Index (CPI) based retail inflation - on a declining trend since January - was 4.31 per cent in May 2023 (the previous low). The government has tasked the Reserve Bank to ensure the CPI inflation remains at 4 per cent with a margin of 2 per cent on either side.
The National Statistical Office (NSO), Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) in its data has showed that Rural CPI (General) in May 2024 stood at 5.28 per cent over 5.43 per cent in April 2024. The Urban CPI (General) stood at 4.15 per cent in May as against 4.11 per cent in April. The index value for Rural, Urban and Combined CPI (General) stood at 189.3, 185.6 and 187.6 respectively, in May 2024. The price data are collected from selected 1114 urban Markets and 1181 villages covering all States/ UTs through personal visits by field staff of Field Operations Division of NSO, MoSPI on a weekly roster.
Inflation in the food basket stood at 8.69 per cent in May, marginally down from 8.70 per cent in April. The inflation rate for vegetables moderated marginally to 27.3 per cent on a yearly basis as against 27.8 per cent in April. For cereals and Pulses, which constitute a significant portion of India's staple diet, the inflation rate came in at 8.69 per cent and 17.14 per cent respectively. The Fuel and light inflation rate for May contracted to 3.83 per cent as against a contraction of 4.24 per cent in April. For clothing & footwear and housing sectors the inflation rates were 2.74 per cent and 2.56 per cent, respectively.