Inflation falls to 5-yr low of 3.54%

New Delhi:Retail inflation declined to 3.54 per cent in July, slipping below the Reserve Bank’s targeted 4 per cent for the first time in nearly 5 years, as food prices cooled, government data showed on Monday.

The Consumer Price Index (CPI) based retail inflation was 5.08 per cent in June 2024 and 7.44 per cent in July 2023. Inflation in the food basket was 5.42 per cent in July, down from 9.36 per cent in June, according to the data released by the National Statistical Office (NSO). The last time inflation was below 4 per cent was in September 2019. The government has tasked the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to ensure that the CPI inflation remains at 4 per cent with a margin of 2 per cent on either side.

Factory output grows 4.2%

Meanwhile, India’s industrial production grew 4.2 per cent in June this year, mainly due to a good show by the mining and power sectors, according to official data released on Monday.

The factory output, measured in terms of the Index of Industrial Production (IIP) witnessed a growth of 4 per cent in June 2023. India’s Index of Industrial Production increased by 4.2 per cent in June 2024, an official statement said.

The data released by the National Statistical Office (NSO) showed that the manufacturing sector’s output grew 2.6 per cent in June 2024 against 3.5 per cent in the year-ago month. In June this year, mining production rose 10.3 per cent, and power output increased 8.6 per cent. In the April-June quarter of this fiscal, the IIP grew 5.2 per cent compared to 4.7 per cent in the year-ago period.