Retail inflation inched up to 4.87 in May on increase in prices of certain items in the food basket, as per the government data released today.
Based on the Consumer Price Index (CPI), the inflation was at 4.58 per cent in the preceding month April.
In May last year, it was 2.18 per cent. According to the data of the Central Statistics Office (CSO), food inflation rose to 3.10 per cent last month, as against 2.8 per cent in April.
The price data is collected from selected towns by the Field Operations Division of NSSO and from selected villages by the Department of Posts.
Meanwhile, the government released separate data for Industrial output which showed that the industrial growth expanded by 4.9 per cent in April this year, spurred by higher growth in manufacturing and mining sectors.
The industrial growth, measured on the Index of Industrial Production (IIP), was 3.2 per cent in April last year.
In March this year, industrial production had grown at 4.4 per cent. The CSO data showed that the manufacturing sector, which constitute more than 77 per cent of the index, recorded a growth of 5.2 per cent in April, up from 2.9 per cent in the year ago month.
The mining sector too expanded by 5.1 per cent, up from 3 per cent in April 2017.
The growth in power generation however slipped to 2.1 per cent in April this year, from 5.4 per cent in the year-ago month.
Earlier last week, the Reserve Bank for the first time in four-and-half-years raised key interest rate today by 25 basis points to 6.25 per cent on inflation concerns arising from surge in international oil prices.
In the second bi-monthly monetary policy for the current fiscal, the central bank revised upwards the retail inflation range to 4.8-4.9 per cent in the first half of 2018-19, and 4.7 per cent in the second half.
It includes the impact from HRA for central government employees, with risks tilted to the upside.
Prasanta Patnaik 
amfnews