Helped by softening prices of food items, the retail inflation declined to 5.52 per cent in October, the lowest since the new series of data was introduced in January 2012. This is the fourth consecutive month of decline in the Consumer Price Index based inflation or retail inflation, which had fallen to 6.46 per cent in the previous month.
The overall food inflation measured on CPI came down to 5.59 per cent in October against 7.67 per cent in the previous month.
Retail prices of vegetables declined by 1.45 per cent against a rise of 8.59 per cent in September, according the data released by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation.
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Inflation in fruits slowed to 17.49 per cent from 22.4 per cent in September. Similarly the rate of price rise in protein rich items like eggs, fish and meat was at 6.34 per cent in October, slightly down from 6.35 per cent in the previous month.
The data on inflation based on Wholesale Price Index for October will be released on Friday. WPI inflation had dropped to a near five-year low in September to 2.38 per cent, helped by moderation in food and fuel prices.
RBI has started targeting retail inflation, while deciding on its bi-monthly monetary policy.
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RBI has been targeting a retail inflation of 8 per cent by March 2015 and 6 per cent by March 2016. Retail inflation in cereals and products also came down to 6 per cent in October from 6.42 per cent in the previous month.