India's retail inflation rises to three-month high level of 6.52 %

New Delhi: Retail inflation, based on the consumer price index (CPI), rose to 6.52 percent in January from December's one-year low of 5.72 percent.

As per the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation data released yesterday, the retail inflation for January stood at a three-month high level.

Inflation in January grew mainly due to a rise in food inflation which climbed to 5.94 percent for the reported month from 4.19 percent in



December.

In December last year, the CPI came below the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) upper margin of 6 per cent for the first time in the calendar year. The government has mandated the central bank to maintain retail inflation at four per cent with a margin of two per cent on either side.

On Wednesday last week, the Reserve Bank of India increased the repo rate by 25 basis points to 6.50 per cent to arrest inflation.