Consumer price inflation at 9.9% in November

Rising for the second consecutive month, retail inflation surged 9.90 per cent in November driven mainly by rising prices of food items such as sugar, vegetables, edible oil and clothing.

The retail inflation was 9.75 per cent in October and 9.73 per cent in September.

The highest price rise in November was seen in the oil and fats segment with an annual inflation of 17.67 per cent, as per the Consumer Price Index (CPI) data released on Wednesday.

Further, sugar turned expensive by 16.97 per cent, and pulses became dearer by 14.19 per cent on an annual basis.

Vegetable rates during the month increased by 14.74 per cent, while prices of meat, fish and egg rose by 11.33 per cent.

At the same time, clothing and footwear also witnessed an increase in prices at 11.08 per cent in November.

In urban areas, retail inflation rose to 9.69 per cent in November, from 9.46 per cent in the previous month. However, CPI moderated for rural population to 9.97 per cent during the month from 9.98 per cent in the previous month.

All India provisional general (all groups) CPI numbers of November 2012 for rural, urban and combined are 126.9, 123.4 and 125.4, respectively.

The increase in the retail inflation to near double-digit would be taken into account by the Reserve Bank when it comes out with its mid-quarter policy review next week.

WPI inflation for October was at 7.45 per cent, much higher than the RBI comfort level of 5-6 per cent.

Concerned over the persistent inflation, the Reserve Bank had in October kept benchmark interest rate unchanged.

Meanwhile, industrial output growth rate bounced back to 8.2 per cent in October compared to a 5 per cent contraction in the same month last year.