India's retail inflation down, factory output up

In what should cheer stakeholders, India's retail inflation fell to 3.78 percent in July from 5.40 percent in the month before, even as the growth in factory output accelerated to 3.8 percent in June from 2.7 percent in the previous month, official data showed on Wednesday.

Further, the growth in factory output was led by the manufacturing sector, which expanded by 4.6 percent in June against 2.2 percent in the month before. While mining output fell 0.3 percent, that for electricity was up 1.3 percent.

In the case of retail inflation, even as prices of onions and pulses have been skyrocketing, the rise in the index of food items was lower at 2.15 percent in July, as opposed to 5.48 percent in the month before.

The data on combined Consumer Price Index (CPI) for rural and urban areas, as also the index of industrial production (IIP), was released by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation on Wednesday evening.