The FINANCIAL — India’s consumer inflation rate accelerated to its highest level in five months in November, largely driven by a surge in prices of pulses, government data showed on December 14, according to Nasdaq.
The benchmark consumer price index rose 5.41% from a year earlier, compared with a 5.0% rise in October, according to the data from the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation.
The reading for November is in line with the median 5.4% rise predicted by economists polled by The Wall Street Journal.
Higher food prices and an expected rise in salaries of government employees from next year may stoke price pressure, limiting the window for the Reserve Bank of India to further cut interest rates, Capital Economics said in a research note.
The central bank predicts retail inflation will climb to 5.8% by January as the favorable impact of high readings in the first six months of last year reverses and prices of vegetables and pulses surge due to a second-successive year of below-normal rainfall this year.
After cutting the interest rates four times this year, the central bank kept the key lending rate on hold at 6.75% earlier this month.
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