NEW DELHI (Reuters) – India’s annual retail inflation eased to 5.22% in December from 5.48% in the previous month as the rate of growth in food prices slowed, according to government data released on Monday.
Annual retail inflation in December was lower than economists’ estimate of 5.3% in a Reuters poll.
Inflation in food items, which make up almost half of the consumer basket, slowed to 8.39% in December from 9.04% a month earlier.
Vegetable prices rose by 26.56 percent year-on-year in December, compared to growth of 29.33 percent in November and 42.18 percent in October.
Cereal prices rose 6.5 percent compared to last month’s growth of 6.88 percent, while pulses jumped 3.83 percent compared to 5.41 percent growth in the same period.
Core inflation, which excludes volatile items such as food and energy prices and is considered a better gauge of domestic demand, was 3.6% in December compared with between 3.64% and 3.7% in November, according to two economists .
