India's retail inflation rises to 5.59% in December, highest in 6 months

New Delhi: India’s retail inflation rose to a six-month high of 5.59 per cent in December 2021 as compared to 4.59 per cent recorded in the same month of 2020, the government data showed on Wednesday.

There has been a consistent rise in the inflationary pressure in the past six months. Consumer Price Index (CPI) inflation stood at 4.91 per cent in November 2021. The retail inflation is inching closer to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) upper tolerance limit of 6 per cent.

Rise in retail prices was sharper in urban areas than the rural areas.

Consumer Price Index (CPI) inflation rose 5.83 per cent in urban while it stood at 5.36 per cent for rural during the month of December 2021, according to the data released by the National Statistical Office (NSO), Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation.

Food prices rose sharply. Consumer Food Price Index (CFPI) based inflation surged to 4.05 per cent in December 2021, sharply higher from 1.87 per cent recorded in the previous month. CFPI based inflation stood at 3.41 per cent in December 2020.

Urban retail food inflation surged to 5.08 per cent in December 2021 from 3.33 per cent in the previous month.

Rural retail food inflation jumped to 3.46 per cent in December 2021 from 1.09 per cent recorded in November 2021.