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Retail inflation fell sharply to 4.35 per cent in September from 5.30 per cent in August, mainly due to easing food prices, government data showed on Tuesday.
Price stability must be maintained even as steps to boost demand are taken
The latest retail inflation and industrial output data from the National Statistical Office (NSO) offer some relief from the pall of gloom cast by the relentless second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. Provisional headline inflation slowed to a three-month low of 4.29% in April, helped by softer food prices and a statistical base effect. The rate using an imputed index for the year-earlier period was 7.22%. A separate NSO release showed March industrial output jumped by 22.4%, benefiting again from the fact that the Index of Industrial Production (IIP) had posted an 18.7% contraction in March 2020, when the economy was halted by the start of a nationwide lockdown. A closer look at the inflation data reveals a substantial cooling in the prices of cereals, milk and milk products, vegetables, and pulses and products. While both cereals and vegetables saw a deflationary trend widen to -2.96% and -14.2%, respective
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Inflation remains low in last 7 years: Govt
The government on Tuesday informed Parliament that inflation has remained low in the last seven years - except for a spike in some items - and the government is taking steps to bring it further down. Minister of State for Finance Anurag Singh Thakur, during Question Hour in the Rajya Sabha, said food items in the consumer price index (CPI) are showing a month-on-month decline. Commodities such as cereals, meat and fish, egg, vegetables and pulses have declined during January-February. Overall, inflation has remained low in the last seven years. But in some items, there was a rise in prices due to supply constraints because of COVID-19 and a rise in demand, he said, responding to a supplementary query.