NEW DELHI: The continued increase in foods prices and higher services costs following implementation of the goods and services tax has reflected an increase of retail inflation at 3.36 percent in August.
According to the data released on Tuesday by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, retail inflation which is measured by consumer price index (CPI) dropped to 2.36 per cent in July, while rising at 5.05 per cent in August last year.
Consumer food price inflation, a metric to gauge changes in monthly kitchen costs, continued to remain soft, with prices showing gradual improvement at 1.52 per cent from a decline of 0.36 per cent in July 2017 against 5.91 per cent in the same period in 2016.
Price data are collected from selected towns by the Field Operations Division of National Sample Survey Office and from selected villages by the Department of Posts. Price data are received through web portals, maintained by the National Informatics Centre.
Vegetable prices witnessed an increase of 6.16 per cent in August against a 3.57 per cent fall in July, while the price of pulses continued to drop by 24.43 per cent in August against a 24.75 fall witnessed in July.
