June Retail Inflation Worsens To 6.09% From 5.84% In March

Inflation based on Consumer Price Index (CPI), or retail inflation for the month of June accelerated to 6.09 per cent as against 5.84 per cent in March, government data showed. The government had suspended the release of headline inflation numbers for April and May and had collected data only for food inflation due to inadequate data collection during two-month long lockdown. The June inflation numbers are higher than expectation as a Reuters poll of economists had predicted inflation to have slowed down to 5.30 per cent.

However, food inflation in June has eased to 7.87 per cent, from 9.20 per cent in May.

The official release by the Ministry of Statistics also mentioned that to address the non-availability of data for several sub-groups during April and May, 2020, the National Statistical Office (NSO) undertook a separate exercise based on the imputation methodology recommended in 'Business Continuity Guidelines'.

Accordingly, the government has computed the April and May weighted index numbers for the sub-groups other than food items, but did not mention the headline numbers in percentage terms.