Zee Media Bureau
New Delhi: India's retail inflation cooled to 3.78 percent in July as food price rises stayed in check.
The retail inflation measured on Consumer Price Index (CPI) was at 5.4 percent in June. It was at 7.39 percent in July last year.
The rise in inflation, a key factor considered by the RBI in deciding the bi-monthly monetary policy, comes in the backdrop of some improvement in factory output.
Over the last 19 months, inflation in India has halved from double-digit levels to below the Reserve Bank of India's 6 percent target, giving the bank room to shave 75 basis points off its key repo rate this year.
But economists and the RBI have warned of the risk of a temporary spike in food prices due to poor monsoon rains in a country where around a quarter of the population lives on 74 U.S. cents per day.
With Agency Inputs