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Raising the probabilities of an interest rate hike by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) early next month to tame prices, India's headline inflation surged for a seventh straight month to touch an 8-year high of 7.79 per cent in April on rising food and fuel prices. Retail inflation (CPI) in April soared to a 95-month high on the back of a surge in prices across all major commodity groups. It was way back in May 2014 that CPI inflation was at 8.3 per cent. Inflation has remained above the RBI's comfort zone of 6 per cent for four months in a row mainly due to the Russia-Ukraine war which has impacted the prices of commodities across the globe.

The National Statistical Office (NSO) under Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation in its data has showed that the Rural CPI (General) in April 2022 stood at 8.38 per cent as against 7.66 per cent in March. The Urban CPI (General) stood at 7.09 per cent in April as against 6.12 per cent in March. The index value for Rural, Urban and Combined CPI (General) stood at 170.8, 169.2 and 170.1 respectively, in April 2022.

As per the data, inflation in the food basket rose to 8.38 per cent in April from 7.68 per cent in the preceding month and 1.96 per cent in the year-ago month. The rate of price rise in 'fuel and light' category in the retail inflation basket quickened to 10.80 per cent in April this year from 7.52 per cent in the preceding month. In the 'oils and fats' category, inflation remained at an elevated level of 17.28 per cent (18.79 per cent in March 2022) during the month, as Ukraine is one of the major sunflower oil producers in the world and India imports a major portion of the commodity from the war-ravaged country.

The Price data are collected from selected 1114 urban Markets and 1181 villages covering all States/UTs through personal visits by field staff of Field Operations Division of NSO, MoSPI on a weekly roster. During the month of April 2022, NSO collected prices from 99.9 % villages and 98.3% urban Markets while the Market-wise prices reported therein were 90.3% for rural and 93.7% for urban.