Lower food prices pulled down India’s August retail inflation to 6.69 percent from 6.73 percent in July, official data showed on Monday.
The data furnished by the National Statistical Office (NSO) showed that India’s consumer food price index during the month under review was 9.05 percent against 9.27 percent reported for July 2020.
The CFPI readings measure changes in retail prices of food products.
“During the month of August 2020, NSO collected prices from 96.1 percent villages and 96.4 percent urban markets while the market-wise numbers of prices reported therein were 78.6 percent for rural and 84.4 percent for urban as compared to 87.9 percent for rural and 93.9 percent for urban in February 2020,” the NSO said.
“It may be seen that as various pandemic related restrictions were gradually lifted and non-essential activities started resuming operations, availability of price data has also improved.”
The data showed that CPI Urban rose to 6.80 percent in August from 6.70 percent in July. The CPI rural decreased to 6.66 percent last month from 6.76 percent in July.
The data assumes significance as the Reserve Bank of India, in its last monetary policy review, maintained the key lending rates on account of elevated retail inflation.
The Reserve Bank’s target for retail inflation is set within a band of +/-2 percent.
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