India's headline retail inflation rose mildly to 3.48% in April, from 3.40% in March, according to data released by the National Statistics Office on Tuesday.
The print was softer than the 3.8% projected earlier in a Bloomberg poll of economists and remained below the Reserve Bank of India's 4% target.
However, the April print is the fourth consecutive rise in retail inflation and the highest recorded under the new CPI series with 2024 as the base year.
Oil prices have again become a major macroeconomic concern for India, with Brent crude rising above $107 a barrel on Tuesday after hopes of a US-Iran peace deal faded.
The uptick in April inflation was driven mainly by food prices, with inflation based on the Consumer Food Price Index rising to 4.20% in April from 3.87% in March.
Food inflation, however, was not uniform across items, with tomato inflation remaining high at 35.28% and cauliflower inflation standing at 25.58%.
Rural inflation was higher than urban inflation, both for the headline index and food, with overall rural CPI inflation standing at 3.74%, compared with 3.16% in urban India.
The sharpest inflation continued to be in precious metal-linked categories, with inflation in the personal care, social protection and miscellaneous goods and services division standing at 17.66%.
Experts predict that the twin shock of El Nino and the energy crisis could drive up inflation this fiscal year, leading to rate hikes.
