After falling for two months, retail inflation increased to 6.52% in January.

Today’s government figures says, India’s annual retail inflation rate increased from 5.72 percent in December to 6.52 percent in January.

For the first time in three months, CPI (Consumer Price Index) inflation exceeded the Reserve Bank of India’s target limit of 6%.

Retail Inflation reached 6.77 percent in October.

One of the main causes of the rise in retail inflation is a rise in food costs, which increased to 5.94% in January from 4.19% in December. A whopping 40% of the basket of the consumer price index is made up of rising food prices.

Cereal costs increased 16.12% over the previous year, eggs cost 8.78% more, and milk cost 8.79% more.

India’s rural and urban retail inflation rates were 6.85% and 6.00%, respectively. Cereal, egg, and spice price increases, among other things, were a factor in the increase in food inflation in January.

In November 2022, retail inflation had reverted to the RBI’s target level.

The RBI left the door open for further tightening to control inflation last week after raising the repo rate to 6.50 percent for the sixth time since May.