The central government did not release April retail inflation data on Tuesday as the nationwide lockdown prevented officials from collecting data from various centres.

However, Consumer Price Index (CPI) data that could be collected by telephone has been released, the National Statistical Office (NSO) said in a release.

Usually, data are collected from selected 1,114 urban markets and 1,181 villages through personal visits by field staff of the NSO.

The data collected telephonically did show increase in prices of certain important commodities such as milk products, fruits and vegetables in April over March.

However, the press release said, general CPI (consumer price inflation) and indices at State/UT level are not being released for April .

In view of the nationwide lockdown and the spread of Covid-19, the collection of data on the prices for CPI through personal visits of price collectors was suspended with effect from March 19, the release said.

In April 2020, price data was largely collected by telephonic enquiry from the designated outlets.

This was supplemented by information collected during the personal purchase of field staff for the items being transacted from neighbourhood outlets keeping in view the travel advisories, the release said.

NSO said the price movements for the sub-groups ''meat and fish'' and ''prepared meals, snacks, sweets etc'' under ''Food & Beverages'' Group as well as the ''Pan, Tobacco and Intoxicants'' Group, ''Clothing and Footwear'' Group were not compiled.

Meanwhile, the retail inflation for March has been revised marginally lower to 5.84 per cent compared to 5.91 per cent estimated earlier, it added.

The data showed that retail inflation remained in the RBI's upper target limit of 6 per cent for the first time since November 2019. This was the lowest level of retail inflation reported since November last year.

Aditi Nayar,Principle Economist, ICRA said “given the likely muted demand for most non-essential items, weak pricing power for producers, and favourable base effect related to food items in H2 FY2021, the average YoY CPI inflation is expected to cool to around 4.0% with a downside bias in FY2021 from 4.8% in FY2020. Based on this, we expect the Monetary Policy Committee to reduce the Repo rate by 40 bps to 4.0%, at or before the next scheduled policy review in June 2020, to soften the blow related to the Covid-19 pandemic on economic activity,” she said.