New Delhi: Consumer pricing index (CPI)-based retail inflation decreased to a one-year low of 5.72 percent in December from 5.88 percent the month before. Retail inflation dropped to its lowest level since December 2021, according to statistics issued Tuesday by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation. From 4.67 percent in November to 4.19 percent in December, the food price index decreased.
The CPI fell for the first time in calendar year 2022 below the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) upper margin of 6%. The government has instructed the central bank to keep retail inflation at 4% with a 2% cushion on either side.
The governor of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), Shaktikanta Das, had stated during the December monetary policy meeting that the RBI will continue to fight inflation despite the worst being “behind us,” indicating that the central bank was likely to stay hawkish in the near term.