Retail Information: Food prices continue to rise, with retail inflation jumping to 5.49% in September

New Delhi| After the wholesale inflation data, retail inflation data has also been released. India’s retail inflation rose to 5.49 percent year-on-year in September. This increase occurred due to continuous increase in the prices of food items. Retail inflation is far higher than the 5-year low of 3.65% recorded last month. For the first time since July it exceeded the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) medium-term target of 4%.

The inflation rate of food items, which account for half of the consumer price index i.e. CPI basket, reached 9.24% in September. The retail inflation rate of food items in the month of August was 5.66. Earlier Consumer Price Index (CPI) based retail inflation rate was 3.6 percent in July 2024 and 3.65 percent in August 2024. Retail inflation was within the Reserve Bank’s target of 4 per cent in both the months of July-August. On the other hand, the CPI based retail inflation rate was 6.83 percent in August 2023.

Wholesale price inflation rose to 1.84 percent in September as vegetables and other foods became costlier. Wholesale Price Index (WPI) based inflation was 1.31 per cent in August. In September last year, it had decreased by 0.07 per cent. Food inflation rose to 11.53 percent in September, compared to 3.11 percent in August, according to government data.

This was due to vegetable inflation, which had risen by 48.73 per cent in September. In August, it had decreased by 10.01 per cent. Potato inflation remained high at 78.13 and onion at 78.82 per cent in September. The fuel and power category saw a deflation of 4.05 per cent in September, compared with a deflation of 0.67 per cent in August.