Retail inflation rises to 5.4% in Nov; up 4th month in row

Retail inflation rose to 5.41 per cent in November, 4th straight month of uptick, as prices of vegetables, pulses and fruits went up further to push the rate of price rise above the Reserve Bank's comfort level.
The Consumer Price Index (CPI) based retail inflation in October was 5 per cent - RBI's medium-term target.
In November last year, it was at 3.27 per cent.
Overall, consumer food inflation rose to 6.07 per cent in November, government data showed today.
Retail inflation in pulses and products category shot up to as high as 46.08 per cent during the month.
The rate of price rise in vegetables almost doubled to 4 per cent in November, while that for cereals and products category it stood at 1.70 per cent.

Seasonal fruits turned costlier further in November with inflation printing at 2.07 per cent.

Inflation in meat and fish category was 5.34 per cent; food and beverages - 6.08 per cent and that for non-alcoholic beverages it stood at 4.55 per cent.
However, inflation in milk and products, eggs and fuel and light category was slightly down in November.
In the rural areas, retail inflation rose to 5.95 per cent and for urban sector it was at 4.71 per cent during the month.
"Both WPI and CPI inflation although marginally higher than our expectations is according to trend. Favourable base effect is waning out and this will push both wholesale and retail inflation in coming months.

"Pulses inflation can pose a threat to fight against inflation and mainly instrumental in pushing retail in the month of November," said Devendra Kumar Pant, Chief Economist, India Ratings & Research.
RBI is more likely to achieve its January 2016 inflation target, achieving medium-term target of 5 per cent would remain challenging. Chances of any more monetary easing in this fiscal are almost zero, he said.
The Reserve Bank takes into account retail inflation while deciding on its monetary policy. The central bank's retail inflation target is 5.8 per cent by January 2016.
In its bi-monthly monetary policy review in the beginning of this month, RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan had maintained status quo in its key repo rate as retail inflation has been on a rising trend for past few months.

Earlier today, government released the wholesale price index (WPI) based inflation for November, which stood at (-)1.99 per cent.