Retail inflation eases to 6.77% in Oct, but stays above RBI's tolerance band

India's retail inflation, which is measured by the Consumer Price Index (CPI), eased to 6.77% in October, down from 7.41% in September.

This is the 10th consecutive time that the CPI print has come above the Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) upper margin of 6%. 

The RBI's tolerance band is 2-6%. The Central Government has mandated the RBI to maintain retail inflation at 4% with a margin of 2% on either side for a five-year period ending March 2026.

The overall food inflation, which accounts for nearly half the CPI basket, came in at 7.01% in October as against 8.60% in the preceding month.

Separately, the factory output, measured in terms of the Index of Industrial Production (IIP), witnessed a growth of 3.1% in September, data earlier released by the Ministry of Statistics & Programme Implementation (MoSPI) showed.

Economists polled by Reuters had forecast October CPI to come in between 6.40% to 7.35%, with majority of respondents expecting a figure under 7.00%.

Data released earlier today showed India's annual wholesale price-based inflation (WPI) eased in October to 8.39% year-on-year, the lowest since March 2021, helped by a fall in commodity prices.

The October WPI inflation was lower than the Reuters forecast of 8.70% and 10.70% recorded in the previous month.