Consumer price inflation falls to 9.39 % in April

Consumer price inflation based on consumer price index (CPI) continued to decline, although at a slow pace, falling to 9.39 in April 2013 from 10.39 per cent in March due mainly to an easing of prices of vegetables, edible oil and protein-based foods, provisional figures released by the Central Statistical Office (CSO) showed.

The CPI stood at 10.91 per cent in February 2013.

The corresponding combined all-India consumer price index numbers (provisional) for April 2013 stood at 128.1. The general indices for rural and urban areas for the month stood at 128.7 and 127.4, respectively.

The corresponding provisional inflation rates for rural and urban areas for April 2013 stood at 9.16 per cent and 9.73 per cent, respectively. Inflation rates (revised) for rural and urban areas for March 2013 are 10.41 per cent and 10.38 per cent, respectively.

The rate of increase in prices of vegetables eased to 5.43 per cent in April from 12.16 per cent in March. Price rise in protein-based items like egg, meat and fish stood at 13.60 per cent during the month. Inflation level in oils and fats segment was 7.52 per cent.

The food and beverages segment saw overall inflation of 10.61 per cent in April compared to 12.42 per cent in March.

Cereals recorded the highest inflation of 16.65 per cent in April while inflation in pulses stood at 10.91 per cent and sugar prices were up 10.49 per cent year-on-year.

The clothing and footwear segment saw inflation of 10.22 per cent during April.

Retail inflation in rural areas declined more compared to urban areas. In urban areas, retail inflation declined to 9.73 per cent in April from 10.38 per cent in March while the CPI for rural areas fell to 9.16 per cent in April from 10.33 per cent in March.

Inflation rate based on the wholesale price index (WPI) was also lower at 5.96 per cent in March and data for April will be released tomorrow.

High inflation rate has been a damper for policy rate cut by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), although it announced a 25 basis point reduction in the key repo rate earlier this month.