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New Delhi: Retail inflation inched up to 4.48% in October due to an uptick in food prices, government data showed on Friday.
The Consumer Price Index (CPI)-based inflation was at 4.35% in September and 7.61% in October 2020.
According to the data released by the National Statistical Office (NSO), inflation in food basket rose to 0.85% in October, compared to 0.68% in the preceding month.
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI), which mainly factors in CPI-based inflation while arriving at its bi-monthly monetary policy, has been tasked by the government to keep it at 4%, with a tolerance band of 2% on either side.
The RBI has projected the CPI inflation at 5.3% for 2021-22: 5.1% in second quarter, 4.5% in third; 5.8% in last quarter of the fiscal, with risks broadly balanced.
The retail inflation during April-June period of 2022-23 is projected at 5.2%.
IIP data
Separately, industrial production rose 3.1% in September, according to official data released on Friday.
As per the Index of Industrial Production (IIP) data by the NSO, the manufacturing sector’s output surged 2.7% in September 2021.
In September, the mining output climbed 8.6%, and power generation increased 0.9%.
The IIP had grown by 1% in September 2020.
During April-September this year, the IIP grew 23.5% against a 20.8% contraction in the same period last year.
It shrank 57.3% in April 2020 due to a decline in economic activities in the wake of the lockdown imposed to curb the spread of coronavirus infections.
(With inputs from PTI)