NEW DELHI: India’s retail inflation marginally inched up to 5.69% in January, from 5.61% in December. This is the fifth consecutive month of rise. Retail food inflation rose 6.85% in January from 6.4% in December due to higher prices of pulses, meat and fish, spices and prepared meals, data released by the statistics office showed.
Prices of pulses climbed 43.32% and those of spices were up 10.56%. Clothing and footwear inflation was 5.71%. Fuel inflation was 5.32%. Friday’s data comes days after the economy posted growth of 7.3% in the December ended quarter, faster than the 6.8% growth posted by China in the same quarter.
Earlier this month, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) maintained status quo on key interest rates in its sixth bi-monthly monetary policy review. Governor Raghuram Rajan kept the repo or short term lending rate unchanged at 6.75% and the reverse repo rate at 7.75%. However, he hinted at accommodative stance saying with inflation moving closer to the target there would be more room for rate cut to support growth.
