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With cooling food prices, Consumer Price Index (CPI) based retail inflation declined to a five-month low of 4.85 per cent in March 2024.The CPI was 5.09 per cent in February and 5.66 per cent in March 2023. Previously, CPI-based inflation was the lowest at 4.87 per cent in October 2023. The inflation remained within the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) comfort zone. The government has tasked the RBI to ensure inflation remains at 4 per cent, with a margin of 2 per cent on either side.

The National Statistical Office (NSO), Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) in its data has showed that Rural CPI (General) in March 2024 stood at 5.45 per cent over 5.34 per cent in February 2024. The Urban CPI (General) stood at 4.14 per cent in March as against 4.78 per cent in February. The index value for Rural, Urban and Combined CPI (General) stood at 187.7, 183.6 and 185.8 respectively, in March 2024. 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.

The inflation in the food basket was at 8.52 per cent in March, down from 8.66 per cent in February. Prices of cereals at 8.37 per cent versus 7.60 per cent a month ago, and meat and fish at 6.36 per cent compared to 5.21 per cent in February. Meanwhile, inflation in vegetables stood at 28.34 per cent against 30.25 per cent in previous month and pulses exhibited inflation of 17.71 per cent compared to 18.90 per cent in February. In total, the food and beverages inflation stood at 7.68 per cent in March, lower than 7.76 per cent in February. Beyond food, fuel and light inflation fell further from (-) 0.77 per cent in February to (-) 3.24 per cent in March, while housing inflation dropped to 2.77 per cent from 2.88 per cent sequentially.