Business News : The retail inflation rate fell to 3.54 per cent in July. The rate has come down due to the softening of prices of food items. This is the first time in nearly five years that inflation has come below the Reserve Bank of India's target of four per cent for almost five years. This information was given in the official data released on Monday. Consumer Price Index-based retail inflation was 5.08 per cent in June of this year. In July last year, it was 7.44 per cent. The figures show a broad softening in inflation, indicating improvement in price stability in various sectors.

Food inflation in July

According to the news, and data from the National Statistical Office (NSO), the inflation of food items was 5.42 percent in July. It was 9.36 per cent in June. Earlier, retail inflation was below four per cent in September 2019. The government has given the responsibility to the Reserve Bank to keep the retail inflation at four per cent with a variation of two per cent.

The sharp decline in vegetables

Vegetables witnessed a sharp decline in July. Inflation stood at 6.83 per cent as against 29.32 per cent in June. Inflation in pulses declined to 14.77 per cent from 16.07 per cent in the previous month. Fuel and electricity costs declined further. Besides, inflation in clothing and footwear also saw a marginal decline, while housing inflation remained stable.

These things became expensive.

Inflation in meat and fish increased to 5.97 per cent in July, while it was 5.39 per cent in June. Apart from this, inflation in oil increased from -2.68 per cent in June to -1.17 per cent in July. Similarly, eggsrosen went from 4.10 per cent in June to 6.76 per cent in July. Keeping inflation in mind, in its recent monetary review policy meeting, the Reserve Bank of India did not change the policy rate, i.e., the repo rate, for the ninth time. The repo rate is currently 6.50 per cent. Despite this, some banks increased their lending rate.