Retail inflation rises to 6.95 pc in March, highest in 17 months

New Delhi: India's retail inflation surged to a 17-month high of 6.95 percent in March from 6.07 percent in the previous month due to a sharp increase in food prices, the National Statistical Office (NSO) data showed on Tuesday.

Retail inflation as measured by the Consumer Price Index (CPI) has remained above the upper limit of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) tolerance band for the third consecutive month. The retail inflation stood at 6.01 percent in January 2022. The inflation is sharply higher when compared with the previous year. The Consumer Price Index (CPI) based inflation stood at 5.52 percent in March 2021.

The price rise was sharper in rural India than in urban. CPI for rural India surged to 7.66 percent in March from 6.38 percent in the previous month.
CPI-based inflation for urban India rose to 6.12 percent in March 2022 from 5.75 percent in the previous month.
The Consumer Price Index (CPI) inflation data is released monthly by the National Statistical Office (NSO), Ministry of Statistics, and Programme Implementation.

The Price data are collected from selected 1,114 urban markets and 1,181 villages covering all states/UTs through personal visits by field staff of the Field Operations Division of NSO, MoSPI on a weekly roster.
During the month of March 2022, NSO collected prices from 99.9 percent of villages and 98.3 percent of urban markets while the market-wise prices reported therein were 90.2 percent for rural and 93.2 percent for urban, according to an official statement released by the National Statistical Office (NSO). (ANI)