Retail inflation rises to 5.52% in Mar

Retail inflation rose to 5.52% in March, mainly on account of higher food prices, government data showed.

The consumer price index ( CPI)- based retail inflation stood at 5.03% in February.

The rate of price rise in the food basket accelerated to 4.94% in March, as against 3.87% in the preceding month, as per data released by the National Statistical Office.

Inflation in ‘fuel and light’ category was 4.50% during the month vis-a-vis 3.53% in February. Earlier this month, the

Reserve Bank of India (RBI) had projected the retail inflation at 5% in the March quarter of 2020-21 and 5.2% in the first two quarters of the current fiscal.

After breaching the upper tolerance threshold of 6% for six consecutive months (JuneNovember 2020), CPI inflation fell in December 2020 and eased further in January 2021 to 4.1% on the back of a sharp correction in vegetable prices and softening of cereal prices. However, it rebounded to 5% in February. The RBI, which mainly factors in the retail inflation while arriving at its monetary policy, has been asked to keep CPI inflation at 4%.