New Delhi. Retail inflation has moderated slightly due to last month’s cut in petrol and diesel prices, but it is still above 7 per cent. The common people have got some relief due to the cheapness of petroleum products and retail inflation has come down due to the reduction in the inflation of food items to fuel and electricity. It is worth noting that the central government last month reduced the excise duty on petrol and diesel by Rs 9.5 per liter. Its effect has been seen on the retail inflation rate of May.
According to government data released on Monday, retail inflation based on the Consumer Price Index declined to 7.04 per cent in May. It was 7.79 per cent in the month of April. In this way, there has been a decrease of 0.75 percent in May. But if you look at the figures year after year, it is still very high. A year ago i.e. in May 2021, the retail inflation rate was 6.30 percent.
However, according to the data released on Monday, the inflation rate of food items came down from 8.38 per cent to 7.97 per cent. Its effect was visible on retail inflation. However, this is the fifth consecutive month that the inflation rate has been above the 6 per cent ceiling set by the Reserve Bank of India. In fact, since the first month of this year i.e. January, retail inflation has been above 6 per cent. Retail inflation stood at 6.01 per cent in January, 6.07% in February, 6.95% in March and rose to 7.79 per cent in April.
