New Delhi. In the month of October, inflation has broken the record of 14 months. Besides, it has also crossed the maximum limit of retail inflation set by the Reserve Bank. According to the data released by the National Statistical Office (NSO) on Tuesday, due to the huge increase in the prices of food items, the retail inflation rate has increased to 6.21 percent in October. This is the highest level of inflation in 14 months. Earlier in August 2023, the inflation rate was 6.83 percent.
It is noteworthy that the Reserve Bank has set a maximum limit of six percent for retail inflation. But in October inflation crossed that limit also. Earlier in the month of September also, inflation rate had reached 5.49 percent due to increase in cost of vegetables. It is worth noting that food items account for about 50 percent of inflation. Its inflation has increased from 9.24 percent to 10.87 percent on month-on-month basis. This means that the prices of food items are continuously increasing.
According to the latest government data, inflation in rural areas has increased from 5.87 to 6.68 percent and urban inflation has increased from 5.05 to 5.62 percent. This means that inflation has increased more in rural areas. In fact, due to continuous increase in the prices of vegetables, such a huge jump has been seen in retail inflation based on Consumer Price Index. Retail inflation of vegetables was 42.18 percent in October, whereas it was 35.99 percent in September. However, there has been a decline in the inflation rates of pulses, eggs, sugar and confectionery and spices in October.
However, the National Statistics Department has also released the industrial production figures in the country along with the inflation figures. According to this, due to better performance of the manufacturing sector, the country’s industrial production i.e. IIP increased by 3.1 percent in September. According to official data released on Tuesday, the growth rate of industrial production in September 2023 was 6.4 percent. According to the data released by NSO, for September 2024, there has been an increase of 0.2 percent in mining, 3.9 percent in manufacturing and 0.5 percent in power sector. The growth rate of industrial production during the first half of the current financial year 2024-25, i.e. from April to September, has been four percent, whereas in the same period of the last financial year, it had increased at the rate of 6.2 percent.