NEW DELHI: As per data released by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation on Monday indicated that India's benchmark inflation rate, measured by the Consumer Price Index (CPI) rose to 6.01 per cent year-on-year in January 2022.

Although marginally the CPI figure for January has clearly crossed the Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) comfort zone, which was at 5.66 per cent in December 2021 and 4.06 per cent a year ago in January 2021. 

According to the NSO’s data, inflation in the food basket was 5.43 per cent in January 2022 as against 4.05 per cent in the preceding month. The RBI, which mainly factors in the CPI-based inflation, has been tasked by the government to keep the inflation at 4 per cent, with a margin of 2 per cent on either side.

The uptick in the food basket was due to a sharp rise in prices of oils and fats, which climbed by 18.70 per cent on the year in January. Apart from this, meat and fish prices saw a rise of 5.47 per cent, while that of vegetables gained 5.19 per cent and pulses and products rose by 3.02 per cent. 

In a recent monetary policy meet, RBI had said that inflation based on CPI was expected to come well below its upper tolerance level, at 4.5 per cent, in the next fiscal year beginning April 2022 although it had retained its inflation projection at 5.3 per cent for the current financial year.