India’s consumer price inflation falls further to 2.05% in January
12 Feb 2019
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Consumer price inflation in the country dropped further to 2.05 per cent in January 2019 from 2.19 per cent in December 2018, helped by a fall in food prices and benign increases in fuel prices, official data released today showed.
Consumer price inflation had declined to 2.33 per cent in November 2018 from 3.31 per cent in October, and has been ruling well below the Reserve Bank of India’s medium-term inflation target of 4.0 per cent for some months now.
This opens up the possibility of the RBI further easing its monetary policy after the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of the RBI last week the cut repo rate to 6.25 per cent while also reducing consumer inflation expectation lower at 3.5 per cent.
The annual rate of inflation in food prices, which account for about half of the consumer price index (CPI), declined further to -2.17 per cent in January 2019 from (-) 2.51 per cent in December.
Consumer price inflation for the rural areas stood at 1.29 per cent in January 2019 from 1.65 in December 2018, and 5.21 per cent in January 2018.
Consumer price inflation for the urban areas stood at 2.91 per cent in January 2019, unchanged from its level in December 2018, and 4.93 per cent in January last year.
Food price inflation for rural areas stood at (-) 2.80 per cent in January 2019 against (-) 2.84 per cent in December 2018 and 5.05 per cent in January last year.
Food price inflation for urban areas stood at (-) 0.96 per cent in January 2019 against (-) 1.89 per cent in December 2018 and 4.06 per cent in January last year.
