NEW DELHI: Retail inflation in November eased to 6.93 per cent from a year ago, helped by a lower increases in prices of food products, government data showed on Monday.
The figure stood at 7.61 per cent in the previous month.
According to the CPI data, inflation in the food basket was 9.43 per cent in November, down from 11 per cent in the previous month.
"CPI has partially eased, as we had expected, due to a sequential easing in the prices of food and beverages. But the print at 6.93% is still very high and core inflation remains elevated at 5.57%," Rupa Rege Nitsure, chief economist, L&T Financial Holdings, Mumbai, told news agency Reuters.
Meanwhile, in another set of data released by the Centre, the wholesale price-based inflation rose to a 9-month high of 1.55 per cent in November on costlier manufactured items, even as food prices cooled.
The WPI inflation was 1.48 per cent in October 2020 and 0.58 per cent in November last year.
This is the highest level of wholesale price index-based (WPI) inflation since February, when it was 2.26 per cent.
While food articles saw softening in inflation in November, manufactured items witnessed hardening of prices.
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI), which mainly factors in retail inflation while arriving at key policy rates, has been mandated by the government to keep inflation at 4 per cent (+, - 2 per cent).
The central bank had maintained status quo in the policy rate earlier this month due to high inflation.
(With inputs from agencies)