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The Consumer Price Index (CPI) based retail inflation increased to 5.08 per cent in June 2024 from a revised 4.80 per cent in May 2024 as kitchen items became dearer. CPI was 4.87 per cent in June 2023 (previous low). The inflation remained within the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) comfort zone. The government has tasked the RBI to ensure that the CPI inflation remains at 4 per cent with a margin of 2 per cent on either side. The central bank mainly factors in the retail inflation while deciding its bi-monthly monetary policy.

The National Statistical Office (NSO), Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) in its data has showed that Rural CPI (General) in June 2024 stood at 5.66 per cent over 5.34 per cent in May 2024. The Urban CPI (General) stood at 4.39 per cent in June as against 4.21 per cent in May. The index value for Rural, Urban and Combined CPI (General) stood at 192.2, 187.8 and 190.2 respectively, in June 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. 

As per the data, inflation in the food basket was 9.36 per cent in June, up from 8.69 per cent in May. The rise in food prices was driven by acceleration in the prices of cereals (8.75 per cent in June against 8.69 per cent in May), fruit (7.15 per cent in June against 6.68 per cent in May), vegetables (29.32 per cent in June against 27.33 per cent in May), and Sugar & Confectionery (5.83 per cent in June against 5.70 per cent in May). Though the price of pulses decelerated to 16.07 per cent in June over 17.14 per cent the preceding month, it still saw a double-digit rise in June. On the other hand, prices of protein-rich items like meat and fish (5.39 per cent in June v/s 7.28 per cent in May) and eggs (3.99 per cent in June v/s 7.62 per cent in May) decelerated during the month.