Inflation hit, country’s retail inflation may remain at 18-month high in April

In the month of April, the country’s retail inflation may remain at its highest level of 18 months. This has come to the fore in a poll of news agency Reuters. The rise in retail inflation has been mainly attributed to the increase in the prices of fuel and food items. With this, this may be the fourth consecutive month, when retail will remain above the RBI’s fixed range of 2 to 6 per cent. This jump in inflation was already anticipated. In fact, due to the recent assembly elections in five states, fuel prices did not increase for several months. Later, in the last week of March and again in April, the oil companies sharply increased the price of fuel. Apart from this, due to Russia-Ukraine war, oil and gas prices had reached higher levels at the global level.

The poll said that due to these factors • India’s retail inflation may rise to 7.5 percent in April. Retail inflation stood at 6.95 per cent in March. The poll was conducted by Reuters from May 5 to 9 and it was attended by 45 economists. If this matches the government figures, it will be the highest retail inflation rate since October 2020. The government will release the data related to retail inflation for April on May 12. Shilan Shah, Senior India Economist, Capital Economics, said, “CPI inflation is likely to remain elevated in April on the back of a rise in food and beverage prices and fuel prices. The impact of the recent hike in fuel prices is Will be felt in April. We will not be surprised if there is an increase in core inflation as well.”