Rising for the second consecutive month, retail inflation surged 9.90% in November driven mainly by rising prices of food items such as sugar, vegetables, edible oil and clothing.
The retail inflation was 9.75 %in October and 9.73% in September.
The highest price rise in
November was seen in the oil and fats segment with an annual inflation of 17.67%, as per the Consumer Price Index (CPI) data released on Wednesday.
Further, sugar turned expensive by 16.97%, and pulses became dearer by 14.19% on an annual basis.
Vegetable rates during month increased by 14.74%, while rates of meat, fish and egg rose by 11.33%.
At the same time, clothing and footwear also witnessed an increase in prices at 11.08% in November.
In urban areas, retail inflation rose to 9.69% in November, from 9.46% in the previous month. However, CPI moderated for rural population to 9.97% during the month from 9.98% in the previous month.
All India provisional General (all groups) CPI numbers of November 2012 for rural, urban and combined are 126.9, 123.4 and 125.4, respectively.
The increase in the retail inflation to near double-digit would be taken into account by the Reserve Bank when it comes out with its mid-quarter policy review next week.
WPI inflation for October was at 7.45%, much higher than the RBI comfort level of 5-6%.
Concerned over the persistent inflation, the Reserve Bank had in October kept benchmark interest rate unchanged.
Meanwhile, industrial output growth rate bounced back to 8.2% in October compared to a 5% contraction in the same month last year.