India's April CPI Inflation Nears 8%... Highest in 8 Years
[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Hyunjung] India's consumer price index (CPI) inflation rate for April surged to nearly 8%, reaching the highest level since 2014.
India's National Statistical Office announced on the 12th (local time) that consumer prices rose 7.79% year-on-year last month. This exceeds both the Bloomberg survey forecast of economists (7.42%) and the previous month's figure (6.95%). Consumer food prices jumped 8.4%, and fuel prices soared 11%.
Accordingly, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is expected to accelerate its pace of interest rate hikes. Inflation has exceeded the central bank's target range of 2-6% for four consecutive months.
Shaktikanta Das, Governor of the Reserve Bank of India, emphasized last month that slowing price increases should be prioritized, and the central bank made a surprise rate hike last week, raising the benchmark rate from 4% to 4.4%.
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Gaura Kapur, Chief Economist at IndusInd Bank, a private Indian bank, forecasted that due to high inflation, the Reserve Bank of India could raise the annual interest rate by 0.75 to 1%. He also predicted that India's inflation would remain above 6% until September.
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