Retail inflation eased to 7.04 per cent in May

India's retail inflation eased slightly in May, after touching an eight-year high of 7.79 per cent in April, though it remained above the RBI's upper tolerance level for the fifth consecutive month, government data showed on Monday. The Consumer Price Index (CPI) based inflation was 7.79 per cent in April. In May 2021, the retail inflation stood at 6.3 per cent. CPI-based inflation rose 7.04 per cent in May year-on-year, helped by slower increases in food prices, data released by the National Statistics Office (NSO) showed on Monday.

Inflation in the food basket was 7.97 per cent in May 2022, marginally lower than 8.31 per cent in the previous month, the NSO data showed. The Reserve Bank of India, which factors in the CPI in its monetary policy, had earlier this month raised the inflation forecast for the current financial year to 6.7 per cent from its previous estimate of 5.7 per cent. A surge in crude oil and commodity prices since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 24 has pushed up consumer prices globally, forcing many central banks to raise interest rates to tame inflation