India’s retail inflation as measured by the Consumer Price Index (CPI) recorded 6.26 percent in the month of June as compared to 6.09 percent reported in the year-ago period, showed data released by the National Statistics Office (NSO) on Monday. Inflation based on CPI, however, remained above the RBI’s comfort level for the second month in a row.
While industrial output as measured by the Index of Industrial Production (IIP) recorded 29.3 percent in the month of May as compared to 88.4 percent in the year-ago period. Industrial output, or factory output, is the closest approximation for measuring the economic activity of the country’s business landscape.
The manufacturing sector output surged 34.5 percent in May 2021. Mining output climbed 23.3 percent and power generation increased 7.5 percent in May. The IIP had contracted 33.4 percent in May 2020.
According to the CNBC-TV18 poll of economists, the forecast CPI was estimated at 6.51 percent and May IIP was pegged at 33 percent. The IIP data comes with a lag of six weeks.
The RBI has been mandated by the government to keep retail inflation at 4 percent with a margin of 2 percent on either side. According to the data released by NSO, inflation in the food basket was 5.15 percent in June compared to 5.01 percent in May.
Industrial production has been hit due to the coronavirus pandemic since March last year when it had contracted 18.7 percent. It shrank 57.3 percent in April 2020 due to a decline in economic activities in the wake of the lockdown to curb the spread of coronavirus infections.
First Published: IST
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