Retail inflation data for May 2022 is expected later today, a figure eagerly anticipated, as inflation for April 2022 had risen to an eight-year high of 7.79 per cent due to sharp jump in global crude and edible oil prices.
The April 2022 retail inflation figure was the highest since May 2014, when it was 8.33 per cent.
The retail inflation (which is calculated on consumer price index) for April 2022 was almost double, compared to CPI inflation of April 2021, which was 4.23 per cent.
Food inflation for April 2022 had surged to 8.38 per cent from 7.68 per cent in March 2022 and a meagre 1.96 per cent in April 2021.
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) last week had upwardly revised its inflation projection for the current fiscal at 6.7 per cent, from the earlier 5.7 per cent.
In fact it projected retail inflation to grow at 7.5 per cent rate during the first quarter of the current fiscal.
The central bank had taken into account factors like international crude oil prices (which it had said, remain elevated and impact domestic retail prices), higher electricity prices and early results from manufacturing, services and infrastructure sectors firms polled in its surveys, which would put pressure on prices, going forward.
Crude oil prices continue to remain high as Brent crude is trading at $119.9 per barrel amid the protracted Russia-Ukraine war.
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