Retail Inflation Eases In Feb; IIP Improves By 2% In January

On Thursday, data released by the National Statistical Office showed that retail inflation, measured by CPI (Consumer Price Index) eased to 6.58 percent in February when compared to 7.59 percent in the previous month. Index of Industrial Production (IIP) estimates for the month of January were at 137.1, 2 percent higher than the same month a year ago.

CPI

Retail rural inflation in February was at 6.67 percent and that in the urban area stood at 6.57 percent. In the previous month, there was significant surge in inflation (7.73 percent in rural and 7.39 in urban areas) due to an increase in food prices. Consumer Food Price Index (CFPI) for the month under review stood at 10.37 percent in rural, 11.51 percent in urban and 10.81 combined. The combined CFPI was at 13.63 percent in January and -0.73 percent in February 2019.

IIP

IIP the Mining, Manufacturing and Electricity sectors for the month of January 2020 stood at 124.3, 137.6 and 155.6 respectively, with the corresponding growth rates of 4.4 percent, 1.5percent and 3.1 percent in comparison to January 2019.

Cumulative growth in these three sectors during April-January 2019-20 over the corresponding period of 2018-19 has been 1 percent, 0.3 percent and 0.9 percent, respectively.

In terms of industries, eleven out of the twenty three industry groups in the manufacturing sector have showed positive growth during the month of January 2020 when compared to the same month of the previous year.