Consumer price inflation down to 4.38% in November

Consumer price inflation in India continued its declining trend, hitting 4.38 per cent in November - the fifth consecutive month of decline - helped by cheaper fuel, food and other consumer items.

Consumer price index numbers (base 2010=100) for rural, urban and combined for the Month of November 2014 stood at 4.09 per cent, 4.69 per cent and 4.38 per cent, respectively, figures released by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) showed.

Inflation rate based on consumer food price indices (CFPI) stood at 3.14 per cent while the figures based on rural and urban data stood at 4.09 per cent and 4.69 per cent, respectively, provisional data showed.

The consumer price index-based inflation stood at 5.52 per cent in October, while it was 11.16 per cent in November 2013. The overall food inflation came down to 3.14 per cent in November from 5.59 per cent in the previous month.

CARE Ratings attributed the declining CPI inflation rate to a high base effect last year. It comes over the highest CPI inflation of 11.2 per cent last year. Hence, the signs of decline in inflation should be interpreted with caution, the rating agency said.

Retail prices of vegetables declined by 10.9 per cent in November against a decline of 1.45 per cent in October, according the data released by CSO.

Price inflation in fruits slowed to 13.74 per cent from 17.49 per cent in October.

The rate of inflation in protein-rich items such as eggs, fish and meat was at 6.48 per cent in November, slightly higher from 6.34 per cent in the previous month.

The data augurs well for a rate cut by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) as the central bank has started targeting retail inflation while deciding on its bi-monthly monetary policy.

The RBI has been targeting a retail inflation of 8 per cent by March 2015, and 6 per cent by March 2016.