New Delhi, Dec 12 (Agency) Driven primarily by food prices, India’s consumer price index (CPI)-based inflation inched up to 5.55% in November 2023 from 4.87% in the previous month. As per data released by the Ministry of Statistics & Programme Implementation (MoSPI), food inflation in November was high at 8.70% as against 6.61% in October this year. In the month of November, rural inflation stood at 5.85% while urban inflation was comparatively lower at 5.26%. While retail inflation moved up in November it remained below the Reserve Bank of India (RBI)’s upper tolerance level of 6%.
The central bank is tasked to maintain price stability in the country and maintain retail inflation at 4% with a margin of 2% on either side. In its bi-monthly monetary policy review last week, the RBI kept the policy repo rate unchanged at 6.5%. This was the fifth time in a row that the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of the RBI maintained status quo on the key interest rate. The RBI has projected CPI inflation at 5.4% in the current financial year. RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das had last week said that while there has been broad-based easing in core inflation, the near-term outlook is masked by risks to food inflation which might lead to an inflation uptick in November and December.