New Delhi, Sep 14 (IANS): Lower food prices pulled down India's August retail inflation to 6.69 per cent from 6.73 per cent in July, official data showed on Monday.

The data furnished by the National Statistical Office (NSO) showed that India's consumer food price index during the month under review was 9.05 per cent against 9.27 per cent reported for July 2020.

The CFPI readings measure changes in retail prices of food products.

"During the month of August 2020, NSO collected prices from 96.1 per cent villages and 96.4 per cent urban markets while the market-wise numbers of prices reported therein were 78.6 per cent for rural and 84.4 per cent for urban as compared to 87.9 per cent for rural and 93.9 per cent for urban in February 2020," the NSO said.

"It may be seen that as various pandemic related restrictions were gradually lifted and non-essential activities started resuming operations, availability of price data has also improved."

The data showed that CPI Urban rose to 6.80 per cent in August from 6.70 per cent in July. The CPI rural decreased to 6.66 per cent last month from 6.76 per cent in July.

The data assumes significance as the Reserve Bank of India, in its last monetary policy review, maintained the key lending rates on account of elevated retail inflation.

The Reserve Bank's target for retail inflation is set within a band of +/-2 per cent.