ICRA Principal Economist Rahul Agrawal on May CPI
This story was originally published at 17:03 IST on 12 June 2026
Register to read our real-time news.Informist, Friday, Jun. 12, 2026
NEW DELHI - Rahul Agrawal, principal economist, ICRA, said the following on India's CPI inflation for May:
While the CPI expectedly hardened in May 2026 vis-a-vis the 3.5% seen in April, it printed at a slightly lower-than-expected 3.9%, as against ICRA's projection of 4.1% for the month. The uptick was entirely driven by the food and beverages, transport, restaurants, and personal care divisions, with the latter three reflecting the impact of the hike in prices of petrol and diesel, commercial liquefied petroleum gas cylinders, and customs duty on gold and silver in the month.
The prices of most food items have firmed up on a sequential basis in June, leading to a hardening in the year-on-year inflation rates as compared to the previous month. Besides, the price pressures across several non-food items are expected to intensify further in the ongoing month, amid the continued pass-through of earlier price hikes across transport and cooking fuels.
Moreover, domestic LPG cylinder prices were raised by INR 29 per cylinder in early June, which is also likely to exert some pressure on the headline CPI print in the month. Overall, ICRA expects the CPI inflation to harden further to around 4.5% in June.
ICRA expects the Monetary Policy Committee to remain data- and development-dependent amid sizeable risks to the growth-inflation outlook. While we believe that the next move on rates is likely to be a hike, its timing would depend on how geopolitical and macro developments, including the severity of the El Nino, transmit to a generalisation of inflationary pressures; the October and December policy meetings could be live for potential rate hike(s), after there is some clarity on the monsoon impact. End
Compiled by Shubham Rana
Filed by Rajeev Pai
For users of real-time market data terminals, Informist news is available exclusively on the NSE Cogencis WorkStation.
Cogencis news is now Informist news. This follows the acquisition of Cogencis Information Services Ltd by NSE Data & Analytics Ltd, a 100% subsidiary of the National Stock Exchange of India Ltd. As a part of the transaction, the news department of Cogencis has been sold to Informist Media Pvt Ltd.
Informist Media Tel +91 (22) 6985-4000
Send comments to feedback@informistmedia.com
© Informist Media Pvt. Ltd. 2026. All rights reserved.
To read more please subscribe
Share this Story:
