Retail inflation declined to 6.83 percent in August
Due to softening of food prices, retail inflation declined to 6.83 percent in August as compared to July 2023. This information is given in official figures.
Decline in CPI based inflation
According to data released by the National Statistical Office (NSO) on Tuesday, consumer price index (CPI) based inflation was 7.44 percent in July 2022, while it came down to 7 percent in August 2022. Food inflation came down to 9.94 percent in August, which was 11.51 percent in July.
RBI estimate for 2023-24
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has estimated consumer price index-based inflation to be 5.4 percent for 2023-24.
National Statistics Office (NSO), Ministry of Statistics and Program Implementation (MOSPI) has released the Consumer Price Index (CPI) on base 2012 = 100 and rural (R), urban (U) and combined (C) for August 2023 (Provisional). The corresponding Consumer Food Price Index (CFPI) has been released.
How price data is collected
Consumer Price Indices are also released for sub-groups and groups across the country (all states and union territories). Personal visits are carried out on weekly roster by field staff of Field Operations Division of NSO, MOSPI, through which price data are collected from selected 1114 urban markets and 1181 villages covering all States/UTs.
NSO collected prices from rural and urban markets
During the month of August 2023, NSO collected prices from 99.6% of villages and 98.3% of urban markets. The reported market-wise values were 88.8% for rural and 91.3% for urban.
Effect of cheap vegetables, meat and fish
According to NSO data, prices of meat and fish, eggs, food and beverages and vegetables have become cheaper. Due to which this decline has been seen in retail inflation.
