April retail inflation likely fell further to 3%

Consumer price index (CPI)-based retail inflation is likely to have cooled further in April, remaining below the 4 per cent target of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) for the third consecutive month.

- SHIVA RAJORA

The decline in inflation is expected on account of easing prices across various goods categories, especially food items.

This potentially opens another window for the RBI's monetary policy committee (MPC) to consider further repo rate cuts in its upcoming bimonthly review meeting in June.

In March, retail inflation stood at 3.34 per cent—the lowest since August 2019.

The National Statistics Office (NSO) will release the April CPI data on Monday.

The RBI, in its last bi-monthly meeting in April, had projected CPI inflation for the current financial year at 4 per cent, with Q1 (April-June) inflation touching as low as 3.6 per cent.

Madan Sabnavis, chief economist at Bank of Baroda, said that retail inflation is expected to come in at 3 per cent, with broader comfort being provided by food inflation.