Retail inflation eases to 4.85% in March, IIP grows 5.7% in February

The government has tasked the Reserve Bank to ensure inflation remains at 4%, with a margin of 2 per cent on either side

Retail inflation declined to a five-month low of 4.85 per cent in March mainly due to cooling food prices, according to official data released on Friday.

The Consumer Price Index (CPI) based retail inflation was 5.09 per cent in February and 5.66 per cent in March 2023. Previously, CPI-based inflation was the lowest at 4.87 per cent in October 2023.

The inflation in the food basket was at 8.52 per cent in March, down from 8.66 per cent in February, according to the data released by the National Statistical Office (NSO).

The government has tasked the Reserve Bank to ensure inflation remains at 4 per cent, with a margin of 2 per cent on either side.

 

According to the Reserve Bank, which factors in consumer inflation while arriving at its bi-monthly monetary policy, food price uncertainties continue to weigh on the inflation trajectory going forward. The central bank has projected retail inflation at 4.5 per cent for the current fiscal assuming a normal monsoon.
 

Continuing geopolitical tensions also pose an upside risk to commodity prices and supply chains.
 

The RBI projected inflation at 4.9 per cent in the April-June quarter and at 3.8 per cent for the September quarter.

Industrial production grows 5.7%

India's industrial production growth accelerated to a four-month high of 5.7 per cent in February 2024, mainly due to the good performance of the mining sector, according to official data released on Friday.
 

The factory output growth measured in terms of the Index of Industrial Production (IIP) was 6 per cent in February 2023.
 

The previous high of IIP was recorded at 11.9 per cent in October 2023, which slowed to 2.5 per cent in November, 4.2 per cent in December and 4.1 per cent in January 2024.
 

During the April-February period of 2023-24, IIP growth touched 5.9 per cent, up from 5.6 per cent in the year-ago period.
 

India's Index of Industrial Production grew by 5.7 per cent in February 2024, according to a release by the Ministry of Statistics & Programme Implementation.
 

As per the latest data, the mining output growth accelerated to 8 per cent in February against 4.8 per cent in the year-ago month.
 

The manufacturing sector's output growth decelerated to 5 per cent in February against 5.9 per cent a year ago.
 

The power generation growth also slowed to 7.5 per cent in February from 8.2 per cent growth in the same month of last year.
 

As per use-base classification, the capital goods segment growth fell to 1.2 per cent in February 2024 compared to 11 per cent in the year-ago period.
 

In February this year, consumer durables output expanded 12.3 per cent. It had contracted by 4.1 per cent in February 2023.
 

Consumer non-durable goods output declined by 3.8 per cent during the month compared to a 12.5 per cent expansion in February 2023.
 

According to the data, infrastructure/construction goods reported a growth of 8.5 in February 2024 against a 9 per cent expansion in the year-ago period.
 

The data also showed that the output of primary goods logged 5.9 per cent growth in February this year, down from 7 per cent a year ago.
 

The expansion in the intermediate goods segment was 9.5 per cent in the month under review, higher than the 1 per cent recorded in the same period a year ago.