New Delhi: Driven by rising food prices, retail inflation inched up to 7.61 per cent in October, remaining above the comfort level of the Reserve Bank.
According to the Consumer Price Index (CPI) data released by the government on Thursday, inflation stood at 7.27 per cent in September 2020.
It was 4.62 per cent in October 2019. The rise in general inflation was mainly on account of elevated food prices. As per the data, the Consumer Food Price Index (CFPI) rose to 11.07 per cent in October, up from 10.68 per cent in the previous month of September.
The RBI, which mainly factors in retail inflation while arriving at key policy rates, has been mandated by the government to keep inflation at 4 per cent (+, – 2 per cent).
Industrial production entered positive territory after a gap of six months, mainly due to higher output in mining and power sectors, official data showed on Thursday. The industrial output grew by 0.2 per cent in September, according to the Index of Industrial Production (IIP) data.
The manufacturing sector – which constitutes 77.63 per cent of the index – recorded a marginal contraction of 0.6 per cent in September. The output of mining and power segments grew at 1.4 per cent and 4.9 per cent, respectively.
The IIP had contracted by 4.6 per cent in September 2019. The industrial production had witnessed a 5.2 per cent growth in February this year. Thereafter it recorded a contraction of 18.7 per cent in March, (-) 57.3 per cent in April, (-) 33.4 in May, (-) 16.6 in June and (-) 10.8 in July this year.
Meanwhile, the contraction in IIP for August has been revised to (-) 7.4 per cent from the (-) 8 per cent provisional data released last month. The government had imposed a lockdown to contain the spread of COVID-19 infections on March 25 this year.
With the gradual relaxation of restrictions, there has been a relative improvement in the economic activities by varying degrees as well as in data reporting, the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation said in a statement. It may not be appropriate to compare the IIP in the post-pandemic months with the IIP for months preceding the COVID-19 pandemic, it added.
The manufacturing sector had recorded a decline of 4.3 per cent in September last year. Similarly, the mining sector output fell 8.6 per cent in September 2019. Power generation also shrank by 2.6 per cent a year ago. The output of capital goods, which is a barometer of investment, fell by 3.3 per cent in September as against a contraction of 20.5 per cent earlier.
Consumer durables output grew by 2.8 per cent, as against a contraction of 10.5 per cent in September 2019. Consumer non-durable goods production grew by 4.1 per cent, compared to a contraction of 1.1 per cent a year ago.
The IIP for the April-September period has contracted by 21.1 per cent, according to the data. It had registered a growth of 1.3 per cent during the same period last fiscal.