India’s retail inflation hits 11-month low in November

India’s retail inflation rate based on Consumer Price Index declined to 5.88 per cent in November from 6.77 per cent during the previous month, according to data released on Monday by the ministry of statistics.

This essentially means retail inflation in India is now at an 11-month low and it declined below 6 per cent, which is in RBI’s comfort zone.

The central bank had so far already hiked the key policy rate by 225 basis points since May to 6.25 per cent to cool off domestic retail inflation that has stayed above the RBI’s upper tolerance limit for over three quarters now.

Under the flexible inflation targeting framework introduced in 2016, the RBI is deemed to have failed in managing price rises if the CPI-based inflation is outside the 2-6 per cent range for three quarters in a row.

An out-of-turn meeting of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of the Reserve Bank of India was held in early November to discuss and draft the report to be sent to the central government for having failed in maintaining the inflation mandate.

The meeting was called under Section 45ZN of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Act 1934, which pertains to steps to be taken if the central bank fails to meet its inflation-targeting mandate. Further details about the special meeting are not officially in the public domain.