Doubts remain on whether the Centre will release retail inflation data for May on Friday having failed to do so for April. A Reuters poll of 35 economists has forecast an inflation of 5.50 per cent in May compared with a year ago.

If publication goes ahead and the Reuters consensus forecast is realised, it would be the lowest inflation rate since November. But it would also mark the eighth consecutive month that inflation is above the Reserve Bank of India’s medium-term target of 4 per cent.

The CSO has stopped publishing the headline consumer inflation statistics after March because of the lockdown. It has, however, come out with truncated numbers: the inflation number for March was revised downward to 5.84 per cent from 5.91 per cent. The numbers are collected from selected 1,114 urban markets and 1,181 villages through personal visits by field staff of the NSO.