Retail inflation rose to 5% in June, a five-month high, despite easing food prices, government data showed today.
The retail inflation based on Consumer Price Index (CPI) was 4.87 % in May. It was 1.46 % in June 2017.
The earlier high was in January this year at 5.07 %.
As per the data released by the Central Statistics Office (CSO), the inflation in the food basket was 2.91 %, compared to 3.1 % in May.
The inflation in fuel and light category, however, went up to 7.14 % as against 5.8 % in May.
The government has mandated the Reserve Bank to keep inflation at 4 %, with a margin of 2 % on either side.
Industrial production grew at 3.2 % in May compared to 2.9 % in the same month last year even as the performance of manufacturing and power sectors remained sluggish.
In terms of industries, 13 out of 23 industry groups in the manufacturing sector have shown positive growth during May 2018 as compared to the corresponding month of the previous year, an official release said.
The output of mining, manufacturing and electricity sectors grew by 5.7 %, 2.8 % and 4.2 % respectively in May 2018 compared to May 2017.
The cumulative growth in these three sectors during April-May 2018 over the corresponding period of 2017 has been 4.9 %, 4 % and 3.1 % respectively.
Consumer durables and Consumer non-durables recorded growth of 4.3 % and (-) 2.6 % respectively in May.
The RBI Governor headed Monetary Policy Committee will be meeting later this month to review interest rate regime.
