Higher food prices stoke June retail inflation

Rise in food and fuel prices propelled India's retail inflation to 5.40 percent in June from 5.01 percent in May, official data showed on Monday.

The data furnished by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) showed that the retail, or the consumer price indexed (CPI) inflation, in the corresponding month of 2014 stood at 6.77 percent.

According to the CSO data, the CPI-urban for June inched higher to 4.55 percent from 4.41 percent in May. The June CPI-rural, meanwhile, jumped to 6.07 percent from 5.52 percent in May.

The main cause for the rise in June inflation was attributed to costlier food items.

The "Food and beverages" sub-indice in the CPI has the highest weightage in the CPI of about 45.86 percent.

The "Food and beverages" sub-indice in the CPI rose to 5.48 percent from 4.80 percent in May.

However, June 2015's food inflation was lower in comparison to the corresponding month of 2014, when it stood at 7.21 percent.

The food inflation in the urban areas touched 5.24 percent from 4.48 percent in May. The food inflation burden for the rural households in June rose to 5.61 percent from 4.74 percent in May.

The food inflation in rural and urban areas during the corresponding month of 2014 stood at 8.05 percent and 5.62 percent, respectively.