India's retail inflation in May declines to over 6-year low of 2.82%: Govt data

India’s retail inflation eased to 2.82% in May, down from 3.16% in April, the lowest year-on-year rise in consumer prices since February 2019, government data showed on Thursday.

This also marks the fourth consecutive month below the RBI's 4.0% medium-term target, the longest such streak in nearly six years.

The decline was driven largely by a sharp fall in food inflation, which slipped to 0.99% in May from 1.78% the previous month, amid lower prices of pulses, vegetables, fruits, cereals, eggs, sugar, and household goods, according to data of the National Statistics Office (NSO).

"The significant decline in headline inflation and food inflation during the month of May 2025 is mainly attributed to a decline in inflation of pulses & products, vegetables, fruits, cereals & products, households goods & services, sugar & confectionary and egg and the favourable base effect," NSO said in a statement.

Rural inflation moderated to 2.59% in May from 2.92% in April, while urban inflation dropped to 3.07% from 3.36% in the same period.

However, housing inflation edged up to 3.16% in May from 3.06% a month earlier, while health inflation rose to 4.34% from 4.25%. Education inflation remained largely unchanged at 4.12%, and transport and communication costs climbed to 3.85% from 3.67%.

The Reserve Bank of India last week surprised the markets by slashing repo rate by 50 basis points to boost economic growth as inflation has remained subdued.