Retail inflation rises to 5.54% in September on costlier food items

Retail inflation rose to 5.54 per cent in September, mainly due to costlier food items, according to government data released on Monday.

The Consumer Price Index-based inflation was at 4.83 per cent in August.

The inflation figure for September is the highest in the new index series released in January.

Inflation in the food basket rose to 7.74 per cent from 5.97 per cent the previous month.

Last week, the Reserve Bank hiked the benchmark lending rate (repo) by 25 basis points to 5.50 per cent amid inflationary concerns.