New Delhi: Retail price based consumer inflation spiked to 16-month high of 4.62 per cent in October on costlier food items, reducing the headroom for a rate cut by the RBI in its monetary policy due next month. The inflation based on Consumer Price Index (CPI) was 3.99 per cent in September and 3.38 per cent in October 2018.The earlier high was reported in June 2018 when the retail inflation print was recorded at 4.92 per cent.

The inflation in the food basket spiked to 7.89 per cent in October 2019 as against 5.11 per cent the preceding month, showed the data released by the Central Statistics Office under the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) on Wednesday. During the month, the prices of vegetables spiked to 26.10 per cent from 5.40 per cent in September, while for fruits it jumped to 4.08 per cent from 0.83 per cent.