Retail inflation rises to 14-month high in October; Congress takes dig at Centre

Retail inflation rose to a 14-month high to 6.21 per cent in October from 5.49 per cent in the preceding month mainly due to higher food prices, breaching the Reserve Bank of India's (RBI's) upper tolerance level, according to official data released on Tuesday (November 12).

The consumer price index-based inflation was 4.87 per cent in October 2023.

The National Statistics Office data showed that inflation in the food basket rose to 10.87 per cent in October from 9.24 per cent in September and 6.61 per cent in the year-ago month.

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The RBI, which kept the key short-term lending rate unchanged earlier this month, has been tasked by the government to ensure inflation remains at 4 per cent with a margin of 2 per cent on either side.

Meanwhile, the Congress expressed concern on Tuesday over the high inflation due to food prices rising beyond the RBI's tolerance level and took a dig at the government, saying in such a situation, all it could do was exclude food prices from inflation measurement.

"Food inflation is now surging to double digits. Vegetable prices jumped 42.18 per cent in October. Onions are now selling in places like Mumbai at prices as high as Rs 80 per kilogram. Retail inflation is now above the RBI's tolerance ceiling of 6 per cent.

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"All this is happening with sluggish consumption, lukewarm investment, stagnant real wages, and widespread unemployment. And when faced with this food price rise, the government's impulse is only to exclude food prices from inflation measurement," Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh said in a post on X.

(With agency inputs)