April retail inflation jumps to 4.58%, up first time in 4 mths on oil price

April was the sixth straight month in which inflation was higher than the Reserve Bank of India's medium-term target of 4 per cent.

India's retail inflation rose to 4.58 per cent in April from a rise of 4.28 per cent in March and 2.99 per cent in the corresponding period of the previous year, official data showed on Monday.

According to the data furnished by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, the Consumer Food Price Index (CFPI) during the month under review stood at 2.80 per cent from a rise of 2.81 per cent reported for March 2018.

However, last month's increase in the CFPI rate was much higher than the 0.61 per cent rise during April 2017.

The annual CPI in rural areas in April ruled higher at 4.67 per cent, while in urban India it rose by 4.42 per cent.

As per the data, the retail inflation rate on a year-on-year (YoY) basis rose due to higher prices of food items like vegetables, milk-based products, eggs, meat and fish.

On a sub-category basis, vegetables in April became costly by 7.29 per cent, while prices of milk-based products rose by 3.21 per cent.

Other notable sub-categories such as cereals became dearer by 2.56 per cent and meat and fish recorded a rise of 3.59 per cent.

The category of food and beverages during the month under consideration recorded a rise of 3 per cent over the same period last year.

Among non-food categories, the "fuel and light" segment's inflation rate accelerated to 5.24 per cent in April.