Higher food prices push inflation to 3-month high of 5.5% in November

Sandeep Dikshit

New Delhi, December 12

Retail inflation inched up to a three-month high of 5.55 per cent in November due to higher food prices. Retail inflation was 5.88 per cent in November last year. It thus reversed the gains of October when Consumer Price Index (CPI) based inflation dropped to a five-month low of 4.87 per cent in October.

As has been the trend for some time, rural inflation at 5.85 per cent was higher than urban inflation at 5.26 per cent, according to an official data released on Tuesday. In October, rural inflation was 5.12 per cent and urban inflation 4.62 per cent.

The rate of price rise in the food basket was 8.7 per cent against 6.61 per cent in October and 4.67 per cent in November 2022, according to the National Statistical Office data. The rise in food prices caused more pain in urban areas where the Consumer Food Price Index (CFPI) was 9.28 per cent while it was 8.38 per cent in rural areas.

High prices of meat and fish, fruits and vegetables and snacks and sweets were particularly h igh in urban areas. In rural areas, the rate of inflation was much higher than urban areas in clothing and footwear, fuel, health, education, transport and communication.

The inflation rate is higher than the RBI’s upper comfort ceiling of four per cent but is broadly consistent with the RBI’s projection of 5.4 per cent for the entire 2023-24.

Industrial growth surges to 11.7%

• India’s industrial production growth accelerated to 16-month high of 11.7% in October, due to double-digit growth in the output of manufacturing, power and mining sectors
• The factory output growth measured in terms of the Index of Industrial Production had contracted by 4.1% in October 2022. The previous high of IIP growth was recorded at 12.6% in June 2022