Consumer Inflation Picks Up To 2.86% In March
Consumer inflation stood at 2.86 per cent in March, government data showed on Friday. That marked picking up of consumer inflation to the previous month, in which retail inflation had come in at 2.57 per cent, according to the Ministry of Statistics statement. Retail inflation - or the rate of increase in consumer prices - was worse than economists' expectation of 2.80 per cent on slightly higher food prices, according to a poll by news agency Reuters. Friday's official data also showed retail inflation has remained within the central bank's medium-term target for the eighth month in a row.
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has set a medium-term target of 4 per cent for consumer inflation, which is determined by Consumer Price Index.
The RBI, which tracks consumer inflation primarily to formulate its monetary policy, earlier this month announced its decision to reduce the repo rate by 25 basis points to 6 per cent - a level last seen in May 2018.
The latest inflation data reinforces economists' expectation of more monetary easing this year. The rate cut announcement in the first bi-monthly monetary policy statement of the current financial year came on the back of a similar reduction in February this year.The RBI also lowered its retail inflation forecast to 2.9-3 per cent for the first half of current fiscal year, mainly due to lower food and fuel prices as well as expectation of a normal rainy season.
Separate data showed that growth in factory output plunged to less than 0.1 per cent in February. Gauged by the Index of Industrial Production (IIP), the factory output had stood at a downwardly revised 1.44 per cent in the previous month, the statistics ministry said in its statement.
-
Blue Wave Will Derail the AI Trade but Won't Dismantle the AI Era | Unhedged Position
The Democrats' sweep of the US Congress will see politics collide with economic forces both over the long and short term.
-
It's Time To Take The GST Council's Bet On Trust Global
Payment records can prove India's services exports, and clear, proportionate rules can bring foreign digital sellers into the tax net.
-
Opinion | India at 38: From Innovation Overperformer to Innovation Powerhouse
India now has 453 VC-backed deep science startups, 18 of them late-stage, after 117 percent growth since 2020. Laurus Labs, at USD 9.3 billion, is the most valuable deep science company in any middle-income economy outside China.
-
Navigating Energy Crossroads: S Jaishankar's Call For Diversified Supply Chains At G20 Ministerial Meeting
As geopolitical fault lines continue to test maritime trade routes and commodity flows, Jaishankar's message remains pertinent: true economic resilience requires open markets, protected transit lines, and a genuine commitment to multilateral cooperation rather than coercion.
-
Indians Are Travelling, But Not Every Journey Is A Holiday | The Week In Whys
Pilgrims, patients and working women are the real travellers, and the system hasn't quite caught up with them.
-
Getting To Work Costs Women More | The Reason Why
It is not just about women paying more than men. It is about women paying much more in cities than in villages.
-
AI Bias In Investing Cannot Be Eliminated, But It Can Be Governed
Framing is a particularly important example as identical financial information presented in terms of gains rather than losses can lead an LLM to reach a different assessment.
-
Joining The Dots | Dark Skies, Steady Diya: Why Hope Holds This Diwali
With war, a weak rupee and foreign outflows weighing on sentiment, policymakers at the NDTV World Summit and market veterans at NDTV Profit Ignite: Diwali Edition offered the same advice: stay invested and filter out the noise.
-
The Curious Case of Equitas Small Finance Bank And A CEO Who Quit For Stock
PN Vasudevan believes persistent investor concerns over a perceived conflict of interest had become a governance overhang on Equitas Small Finance Bank's stock, even as the lender improved profitability and asset quality.
