Retail inflation eases to 6.71% as food prices soften in July

New Delhi, Aug 12: Retail inflation softened to 6.71 per cent in July, mainly on account of moderation in food prices, government data showed on Friday.

In June, retail inflation was at 7.01 per cent and it stood at 5.59 per cent in July 2021.

According to the data, food inflation in July 2022 moderated to 6.75 per cent as against 7.75 per cent in June.

The Consumer Price Index (CPI) based retail inflation, however, remained above the Reserve Bank of India's upper tolerance level of 6 per cent. It has remained above the 6 per cent mark for the past seven months.

In the first three months of the current fiscal, retail inflation remained above 7 per cent.

The Price data are collected from selected 1,114 urban markets and 1,181 villages covering all states and UTs through personal visits by field staff of the Field Operations Division of NSO, the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, on a weekly roster.

During July 2022, NSO collected prices from 99.7 per cent villages and 97.6 per cent urban markets while the market-wise prices reported therein were 89.5 per cent for rural and 92.3 per cent for urban, as per an official statement released by the Ministry of Statistics & Programme Implementation.