New Delhi, February 12 (HS): There is relief news on the inflation front. Due to cheap food items, the Consumer Price Index (CPI) based retail inflation rate has come down to a 5-month low of 4.31 percent in January. It was 5.22 percent in the month of December, while 5 months ago in August it was at 3.65 percent.

The Ministry of Statistics and Program Implementation said on Wednesday in the data released by the National Statistical Office (NSO) that this decline in retail inflation rate has come due to cheap food items. According to the data, retail inflation has come down to 4.31 percent in January. In the previous month in December it was 5.22 percent and in January last year it was 5.1 percent.

According to the data released by the NSO, food inflation has come down to 6.02 percent in January, which was 8.39 percent in December and 8.3 percent in the same period a year ago. At the same time, rural inflation has come down from 5.76 percent to 4.64 percent and urban inflation has come down from 4.58 percent to 3.87 percent. In fact, food items contribute about 50 percent to the inflation basket.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has projected the retail inflation rate to be 4.8 percent in the financial year 2024-25 and 4.2 percent in the financial year 2025-26. RBI has been given the responsibility to keep retail inflation at four percent with a variation of two percent.

Hindusthan Samachar / Jun Sarkar