According to official statistics issued on Friday, food prices cooled off in March, causing retail inflation to drop to a five-month low of 4.85%. Retail inflation calculated using the Consumer Price Index (CPI) was 5.9% in February and 5.66% in March 2023. Prior to this, in October 2023, CPI-based inflation was at its lowest point, 4.87 percent.
The National Statistical Office (NSO) issued data showing that the inflation in the food basket decreased to 8.52% in March from 8.66% in February. The Reserve Bank has been charged by the government to maintain inflation at 4%, with a 2% margin of error.
Food price concerns continue to have an impact on the inflation trajectory going forward, according to the Reserve Bank, which takes consumer inflation into account when determining its bi-monthly monetary policy. Under the assumption of a typical monsoon, the central bank has forecast retail inflation for the current fiscal year at 4.5%.
Supply networks and commodity prices are also exposed to upward risk due to ongoing geopolitical concerns. Inflation was predicted by the Reserve Bank of India to be 4.9% for the April–June quarter and 3.8% for the September quarter.
5.7% Growth in Industrial Production
Based mostly on the mining industry's strong performance, India's industrial production growth increased to a four-month high of 5.7% in February 2024, according to official statistics issued on Friday.
In February 2023, the rise in industrial production, as determined by the Index of Industrial Production (IIP), was 6%. IIP reached its highest point of 11.9 percent in October 2023 and then began to decline, reaching 2.5 percent in November, 4.2 percent in December, and 4.1 percent in January 2024.
IIP growth reached 5.9% in April–February of 2023–24, up from 5.6% in the same period the previous year. In February 2024, the Ministry of Statistics & Programme Implementation released a statement stating that there was a 5.7% increase in India's Index of Industrial Production.
