New Delhi: India's consumer retail inflation, which is measured by the Consumer Price Index (CPI), eased sharply to an 11-month low of 5.88 per cent in November, down from 6.77 per cent in October, while the country’s industrial output contracted by 4 per cent in October on an annual basis, two separate government data showed on Monday.
This is the first time in calendar year 2022 that the retail inflation has fallen within the RBI's tolerance band. The Reserve Bank of India has been asked by the government to keep inflation within the 2-4 per cent range, with a margin of 2 per cent on each side.
The fall in inflation was mainly on account of a slower rise in food prices and a higher base effect, strengthening the case for smaller rate increases by the central bank going ahead.
The data showed that food inflation, which accounts for nearly half the CPI basket, came in at 4.67 per cent in November as against 7.01 per cent in the preceding month. Last week, RBI governor Shaktikanta Das had said that worst of this year's inflationary spike "is behind us" but warned there was no room for complacency.
"The MPC was of the view that further calibrated monetary policy action was warranted to keep inflation expectations anchored, break core inflation persistence and contain second round effects," Das had said.
Meanwhile, the factory output, measured in terms of the Index of Industrial Production (IIP), contracted 4 per cent in October. The IIP had grown 4.2 per cent in October 2021 and by 3.1 per cent in September 2022, a separate data released by the Ministry of Statistics & Prog-ramme Implementation showed.
The previous low was 7.1 per cent contraction in August 2020. The manufacturing sector output fell by 5.6 per cent in October 2022 as against a growth of 3.3 per cent recorded in October 2021.
