Indian retail inflation hit 5.4% in April

In April, India's annual consumer price inflation hit a stronger-than-expected 5.39 percent from 4.83 percent the previous month, reports Reuters, referring to government data released Thursday 12 May.

 

Meanwhile, food inflation picked up to 6.32 percent in April from 5.21 percent in March, the data showed.

 

Separately, data showed India's industrial output edged up 0.1 percent in March from a year earlier, well below forecasts for 2.5 percent growth.

 

Sonal Varma, an Indian economist in Mumbai, said that the increase in fruit and vegetable prices contributed to pushing up the food inflation figure. "There has been an increase in food prices this month. Particularly things like fruits, vegetables, pulses and sugar have seen a fairly high month-on-month increase, which has really pushed up food inflation also to 6.3 percent.