Retail inflation rises to 4.82% in August

Retail inflation increased to 4.82 per cent in August, largely driven by higher food prices, according to government data released on Monday.

The Consumer Price Index (CPI) based inflation was 4.45 per cent in July.

Food inflation in August increased to 5.95 per cent compared to 5.52 in the preceding month, according to CPI data released by the National Statistics Office (NSO).

Reserve Bank has projected the CPI inflation for 2026-27 at 5 per cent, with Q2 at 4.7 per cent, Q3 at 5.9 per cent, and Q4 at 5.5 per cent.

The Reserve Bank of India recently kept key short-term policy rates unchanged amid inflation worries. RBI's official mandate is to keep inflation within the acceptable range of 2 per cent to 6 per cent.

Meanwhile, the wholesale price-based inflation rose to 9.92 per cent in August from 9.78 per cent in July, mainly due to rising prices of food, fuel and manufactured items.