New Delhi: Price rise data for January unveiled by the Union government on Monday, February 13, spells bad news as retail inflation crossed the significant 6% mark.India’s retail inflation has shot up to the highest level in three months, according to data released by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI). It increased to a 6.52% in January, considerably up from 5.72% in December and 5.88% in November.Inflation for November and December was critically lower than the 6% mark that is seen as the upper tolerance level set by the Reserve Bank of India.The level of rural inflation, for the month of January, is close to 7%, or 6.85% to be precise. Food inflation is at 5.94%, with cereals and products at 16.2%. Fuel and light is at 10.84%.The government has said it collects price data “from selected 1114 urban markets and 1,181 villages covering all states/UTs through personal visits by field staff of field operations division of National Statistical Office (NSO), MoSPI on a weekly roster. During the month of January 2023, NSO collected prices from 100% villages and 98.6% urban markets while the market-wise prices reported therein were 90.7% for rural and 93.2% for urban.”