India’s retail inflation rises to 6.3 per cent in May

India’s retail inflation rose to 6.3 per cent in May, breaching the RBI's comfort level, on the back of costlier food items, government data showed on June 14.

The Consumer Price Index (CPI) based inflation stood at 4.23 per cent in April. According to the data released by India’s National Statistical Office (NSO), inflation in the food basket was 5.01 per cent in May, significantly up from 1.96 per cent in the preceding month.

The government has asked the Reserve Bank India to keep the retail inflation at 4 per cent with a margin of 2 per cent on either side. The RBI, which mainly factors in retail inflation while arriving at its monetary policy, had left the key interest rate unchanged earlier this month. The central bank has projected the CPI inflation at 5.1 per cent during 2021-22 -- 5.2 per cent in Q1; 5.4 per cent in Q2; 4.7 per cent in Q3; and 5.3 per cent in Q4 of 2021-22, with risks broadly balanced.