New Delhi, Dec 12 (IANS): The consumer price-based inflation or the retail inflation for November rose to 11.24 percent as compared to 10.17 percent in the previous month, government data showed Thursday.
India's retail inflation rose on the back of high food prices. The prices of vegetables were up by 61.60 percent, fruit prices were up 15 percent, cereals and products have gone up by 12.07 percent and egg, fish and meat went up by 11.96 percent.
Prices of food and beverages were up by 14.72 percent, the data showed.
The price rise was sharper in rural areas. The CPI-based inflation for rural areas increased 11.74 percent in the month under review. The prices of vegetables in the rural were up by 57.75 percent, fruit prices were up 18.38 percent, cereals and products up by 12.01 percent and egg, fish and meat went up by 10.83 percent.
For the urban areas consumer price inflation grew by 10.53 percent in the month under review. Vegetables became costlier by 71 percent, followed by egg, fish and meat which were up 14.17 percent and cereals and products up by 12.43 percent.
The wholesale price index (WPI)-based inflation data for November is expected Monday.
The worrying CPI data will bear heavy on the Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) agenda on Dec 18, 2013, when it meets to review the quarterly financial policy of the country.
The high retail price inflation is not going to make it easy for the RBI to release extra liquidity in the market as RBI's Governor Raghuram Rajan said that though economy is weaker, but inflation is also higher than what the central bank is comfortable with.
"We will analyse all data. Clearly growth is weaker than we would like, inflation is higher than we would like. In a situation where you have high inflation and low growth you have to calibrate policy carefully. There are some trade-offs that we have to make," Rajan told reporters at the conclusion of the RBI's board meeting in Kolkata.
The country's industrial output has contracted by 1.8 percent during October -- from a year-on-year growth of 8.4 percent in the corresponding month of last year -- due to poor performance of the mining and manufacturing sectors.
Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (Assocham) secretary general D.S. Rawat said high retail level prices used by common-man like cereals, vegetables have shown a big rise creating a double whammy for the economy.
"A very disappointing macro picture is evident at a time when the political economy of the country is going fast into an election mode and there is hardly any political consensus on taking the reforms measures," he added.