G20 podium
NEW DELHI: The common man has got relief on the inflation front. Retail inflation has declined in March. The retail inflation rate in March 2023 has been 5.66 percent, which 15-month low. The inflation rate has come down mainly due to cheaper food items. It was 6.44 percent in February 2023. This has been revealed in the data released by the government on 12 April.
With this, the inflation rate has come under the tolerance band of Reserve Bank of India. This is within the upper limit of 6 percent of the central bank. While considering the monetary policy, RBI mainly looks at retail inflation.
Retail inflation based on Consumer Price Index (CPI) was 6.44 per cent in February 2023 and 6.95 per cent in March a year ago. According to the National Statistical Office (NSO), inflation in food products stood at 4.79 per cent in March. This figure was 5.95 per cent in February and 7.68 per cent in the same period a year ago.
Recently, in the first MPC meeting of the new financial year, RBI had announced to keep the repo rate stable. RBI has projected consumer price index based inflation to be at 5.2 per cent in the financial year 2023-24.
