The common people of the country have once again suffered a major setback on the inflation front. In fact, retail inflation has increased more than expected in the month of April. According to the data released by the government on Thursday, the Consumer Price Index (CPI) in the month of April stood at 7.79%. This figure for retail inflation is the highest in the last eight years.
Retail inflation has risen on the back of a sharp rise in food prices and has remained above the Reserve Bank’s target upper limit for the fourth consecutive month. Inflation based on the Consumer Price Index (CPI) stood at 6.95% in March this year and was 4.23% in April 2021.
Food inflation rose to 8.38% in April, from 7.68% in the previous month and 1.96% in the same month a year ago. The government has asked the Reserve Bank of India to ensure that inflation remains at the level of 4%, which can fluctuate up and down by 2%. Retail inflation has remained at 6% since January.
Even before the release of retail inflation data, experts had predicted that its rate could increase to 7.5% in April, but the figures that came out turned out to be more than the forecast. The CPI is already running above the target set by the government.
Industrial production rose to 1.9%
Meanwhile, the country’s industrial output grew by 1.9% in March. According to data released by the National Statistical Office (NSO), manufacturing sector output grew by 0.9% in March. Mining production grew by 4% and electricity by 6.1% in the month under review. Industrial production (IIP) grew by 24.2% in March 2021.
Industrial production has grown almost 11.3% in the financial year 2021-22. It had declined by 8.4% in 2020-21. Industrial production was affected in March 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic. At that time it had seen a huge decline of 18.7%. And Industrial production declined by 57.3% in April 2020. At that time, the lockdown was imposed due to the worldwide pandemic, due to which the economic activities were badly affected.
