Industrial production growth at 4.3% in July, August CPI at 3.21%

Retail inflation inched up to 3.21% in August compared to 3.15% in July

Industrial production growth slipped to 4.3 per cent in July, mainly on account of poor show by the manufacturing sector, according to official data released on Thursday. Factory output, as measured in terms of Index of Industrial Production (IIP), had expanded 6.5 per cent in July 2018.

A slowdown was witnessed in the manufacturing sector, which grew at 4.2 per cent in July as compared to 7 per cent a year ago.

The power generation sector grew at 4.8 per cent in July, compared to 6.6 per cent a year ago earlier. Mining growth was 4.9 per cent in July as against 3.4 per cent in the corresponding month of the last fiscal.

Retail inflation inched up marginally to 3.21 per cent in August from 3.15 per cent in July, mainly due to costlier food items. However, inflation number still remains within the Reserve Bank's comfort level.

The rate of price rise in the food basket was 2.99 per cent in August, up from 2.36 per cent in the previous month, as per the Consumer Price Index (CPI) data released by the Ministry of Statistics & Programme Implementation.

The CPI-based inflation was 3.69 per cent in August 2018. The RBI, which mainly factors in CPI while arriving at its bi-monthly monetary policy, has been asked by the government to keep inflation at around 4 per cent.