Inflation in India is slightly above the “tolerance limit”, and the government is taking steps to control it, Indian Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on Saturday.
“Because we took a very calibrated approach, today we have an inflation which is slightly above the tolerance limit, but which is constantly being worked at so it can be brought down,” she said.
India’s annual retail inflation for March rose at the slowest pace in nearly 15 months and was below the central bank’s upper tolerance level for the first time this year, on the back of softer food prices.
INDIA'S ANNUAL INFLATION
India’s annual retail inflation for March rose at the slowest pace in nearly 15 months and was below the central bank’s upper tolerance level for the first time this year, on the back of softer food prices.
Annual retail inflation eased to 5.66% in March from 6.44% in the previous month, government data showed on Wednesday. This was the lowest reading since Dec. 2021 which was at 5.59% and also lower than Reuters forecast of 5.80% in March.
Food inflation, which accounts for nearly half of the overall consumer price basket, moderated to 4.79% compared with 5.95% in the previous month, vegetable prices eased, offsetting surging cereal prices.
“The sequential decline in the CPI inflation in March was broad-based across the major sub-indices, with only housing reporting an uptick,” said Aditi Nayar, economist at ICRA.
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