Retail inflation accelerates to 4.58% in April

New Delhi: After easing for three straight months, retail inflation accelerated to 4.58 percent in April mainly driven by faster rises in prices of food and fuel products, government data showed on Monday.

The inflation based on Consumer Price Index (CPI), a key data factored in by the RBI to arrive at interest rate, was 4.28 percent in March and 2.99 percent in the corresponding period of the previous year.

As per data released by the Central Statistics Office (CSO), the rate of price rise in the protein rich items like meat and fish inched up in April to 3.59 percent, as against the previous month of 3.17 percent.

Similarly, the inflation in the fruit basket was higher at 9.65 percent compared to 5.78 percent in the previous month. However, inflation in vegetables segment was lower at 7.29 percent in April compared to 11.7 percent. Overall, inflation in the food basket remained flat at 2.8 percent month-on-month.

Earlier in the day, the government released data on Inflation based on wholesale prices. Wholesale Price Index (WPI) touched a four-month high of 3.18 per cent in April as compared to 2.47 percent in March and 3.85 percent in April last year.

April was the sixth straight month in which inflation was higher than the Reserve Bank of India`s medium-term target of 4 percent. The Central bank has fixed medium-term target of CPI Inflation at 4 percent.

Meanwhile, government data on Friday showed that Industrial output growth fell to a five-month low of 4.4 percent in March due to decline in capital goods production and deceleration in mining activity and power generation.

Industrial growth measured by the Index of Industrial Production (IIP) in 2017-18 too decelerated to 4.3 percent from 4.6 percent in the previous fiscal.

The IIP grew by 4.4 percent in March 2017, the same as in March this year, the data released by CSO showed.

With Agency Inputs