India CPI Inflation Rate August 2021: Retail inflation growth across the country eased to 5.30 per cent in the month of August, the data released by the Ministry of Statistics & Programme Implementation (MoSPI) showed.
The retail inflation which is measured by the Consumer Price Index (CPI) for the month of July was 5.59 per cent.
This is the second successive month that the CPI data has come within the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) upper margin of 6 per cent. Prior to that, the CPI came above the 6 per cent mark for two consecutive months in May and June.
The government has mandated the central bank to maintain retail inflation at 4 per cent with a margin of 2 per cent on either side for a five-year period ending March 2026, reports The Indian Express.
The CPI data is mainly factored in by the RBI while making its bi-monthly monetary policy. In its last month’s policy meeting, the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of the central bank had kept the repo rate unchanged for the seventh time in a row at 4 per cent while maintaining an ‘accommodative stance’ as long as necessary to mitigate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. The central bank estimates CPI at 5.9 per cent in the second (Q2) of the ongoing financial year 2021-22 (FY22).
