NEW DELHI, Nov. 13 (Xinhua) -- India's retail inflation rises to 4.62 percent in October, according to data released by the ministry of statistics and programme implementation on Wednesday.
"The inflation based on Consumer Price Index (CPI) in October this year is 4.62," the government data said. "It was 3.99 percent in September this year and 3.38 percent in October 2018."
Food inflation rose to 7.89 percent in October as against 5.11 percent in the preceding month.
Retail inflation, calculated on the basis of the CPI, rose in the wake of high vegetable prices, especially in onion and tomatoes across the country.
India's central banking institution Reserve Bank of India (RBI) had set a medium-term target of 4 percent for consumer inflation, which is determined by the CPI.
The RBI, which tracks consumer inflation primarily to formulate its monetary policy, has so far this year lowered the repo rate or the key interest rate at which it lends short-term funds to commercial banks by 135 points (1.35 percentage points) to 5.15 percent.
Meanwhile, India's factory activity growth, determined by the Index of Industrial Production (IIP), continued to show contraction for second straight month in September. As per data released by government on Tuesday, the IIP contracted by 4.3 percent in September compared with a contraction of 1.1 percent in August.