India’s retail inflation at 3.93% in May, stays below 4% target of RBI

India’s retail inflation remained at 3.93 per cent in May 2026, being under the Reserve Bank of India’s medium-term target of 4 per cent, as per the provisional data released by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation on Friday, June 12.

However, this was slightly up from 3.48 per cent recorded in April. It cannot be compared with the corresponding period last year due to rebasing of the CPI basket that uses 2024 as the base year now.

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The revised series came out in January and is based on consumption patterns captured in the 2023-24 Household Consumption Expenditure Survey. The rise in inflation suggests that price pressures were beginning to emerge after a relatively benign start to the year, IANS reported.

Further, economists and experts have further pointed out crude oil prices as well as the ongoing geopolitical tensions in West Asia as major factors that have contributed to concerns over imported inflation.

Notably, the central bank had revised its inflation forecast for FY27 to 5.1 per cent from 4.6 per cent earlier during its June monetary policy review. Also, the RBI kept the benchmark repo rate unchanged at 5.25 per cent on June 5.