On January 13, 2020, According to the Consumer Price Inflation (CPI) / Retail inflation figures, released by the National Statistical Office (NSO) under the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI), Retail inflation rose to a 5-year high of 7.35% in December 2019. Earlier, in July 2014, the retail inflation had reached 7.39 %.
Retail inflation based on the Consumer Price Index (CPI) stood at only 2.11 % in December 2018 & 5.54 % in November 2019.
Key Points:
i.Exceeding RBI’s limit: The retail inflation has crossed the upper limit set by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). The central government has asked the Reserve Bank to keep inflation in the range of 2-6%. But retail inflation has crossed this range and is moving very high.
ii.Reason: Retail inflation was more affected in December due to high food prices. Food inflation rose to 14.12% from 10.01% in November 2019. In addition to vegetables, high prices of pulses, meat and fish also contributed to the highest level.
iii.Core inflation: While talking about the core inflation, it has increased 3.7% in December with the increase in rail freight rates and telecom rate.
iv.Earlier the CSO (Central Statistics Office) estimated the growth in real GDP(Gross Domestic Product) for 2019-20 at 5%.
Retail inflation:
It is the increase in the price of goods sold at retail market.In India, retail price is measured by the consumer price index (CPI),which is calculated by taking price changes for each item in the predetermined basket of goods and averaging them.
Core Inflation:
It is the change in the costs of goods & services but does not include those from the food and energy sectors.
About Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI):
Founded– 15 October 1999.
Headquarters– New Delhi.
Minister of State(MoS- independent Charge)- Rao Inderjit Singh.
Secretary– Shri Pravin Srivastava
It came into existence after the merger of the Department of Statistics and the Department of Programme Implementation.
