Retail inflation this fiscal at 6 Percent: Mid Year Review

New Delhi, Dec 18: Retail inflation for fiscal 2015-16 is expected to be at 6 percent, the government said on Friday, while lowering its growth forecast for the Indian economy to between 7-7.5 percent.

The retail inflation projected in the Mid-year Economic Review, authored by Chief Economic Advisor Arvind Subramanian and tabled in parliament, is within the Reserve Bank of India’s target of about 6 percent.

India’s annual retail and wholesale inflation rates rose considerably in November to 5.41 percent and (-)1.9 percent respectively, due largely to an inrease in the prices of food items like pulses, official data showed earlier this week.

The inflation rates for October stood at 5.0 percent at retail and (-)3.81 percent at wholesale levels.

Data on the consumer price index (CPI) released by the Central Statistics Office here, showed that the retail inflation for rural areas was much higher at 5.95 percent as against 4.71 percent in urban India. For pulses, the combined inflation rate was a whopping 46.08 percent.  (IANS)