By New Delhi: Consumer inflation within the country increased to 7.34 per cent in September from 6.69 per cent within the previous month as food prices continued to maneuver higher, government data showed on Monday.
The inflation supported the buyer price level (CPI) stood at 6.69 per cent in August. It was 3.99 per cent in September last year.
It’s the highest level of inflation which has been recorded since January this year. Food inflation was recorded at 10.68 per cent last month compared to 9.05 per cent in August.
In its statement, Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation said: “The Price data are collected from representative and selected 1114 urban markets and 1181 villages covering all States/UTs through personal visits by field staff of Field Operations Division of NSO, MoSPI on a weekly roster. During the month of September 2020, NSO collected prices from 98.0% villages and 97.8% urban markets while the costs reported therein were 83.0% for rural and 87.9% for urban.”
The retail inflation, mainly taken under consideration by the RBI to reach its policy decisions, has been above the regulator’s comfort level. the govt has mandated the RBI to limit the inflation at 4 per cent ( 2 per cent).
Persistent high prices has hurt the Indian economy, which contracted a record 23.9 per cent in April-June despite the Federal Reserve Bank of India cutting its key repo rate by a cumulative 115 basis points since the pandemic started. The MPC in its last meeting decided to stay its key interest unchanged and has maintained an accommodative stance.
Although the govt has eased some lockdown restrictions to assist revive the economy, supply chain disruptions have shown little sign of abating aa the virus continues to spread rapidly.
