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In line with cooling prices of food items, the retail inflation based on Consumer Price Index (CPI) eased for second consecutive month to a four-month low of 4.87 per cent in October 2023. This marks the second consecutive month when the consumer price index or CPI-based inflation has remained within the Reserve Bank of India’s comfort zone of below 6 per cent. The government has tasked the RBI to ensure the CPI inflation remains at 4 per cent with a margin of 2 per cent on either side. The inflation was 5.02 per cent in September 2023 and 6.83 per cent in August 2023. In October 2022, retail inflation stood at 6.77 per cent. The previous low inflation was recorded at 4.87 per cent in June 2023. 

Food inflation moderated to 6.61 per cent in October from 6.62 per cent in September due to the prices of items within the category cancelling each other out. The National Statistical Office (NSO) under Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation in its data has showed that Rural CPI (General) in October 2023 stood at 5.12 per cent as against 5.33 per cent in September. The Urban CPI (General) stood at 4.62 per cent in October as against 4.65 per cent in September. The index value for Rural, Urban and Combined CPI (General) stood at 187.0, 183.4 and 185.3 respectively, in October 2023.

There was acceleration in the prices of fruit (9.34 per cent), pulses (18.79 per cent), and protein-rich items like eggs (9.3 per cent) and sugar (18.79 per cent. On the one hand, there was deceleration in the prices of cereals (10.65 per cent), meat (3.27 per cent), milk (6.44 per cent), vegetables (2.7 per cent), and spices (22.76 per cent) during the month. 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 October 2023, NSO collected prices from 99.8% villages and 98.6% urban markets while the market-wise prices reported therein were 89.0% for rural and 92.0% for urban