High growth, low inflation mark Modi government: BJP

New Delhi, Jun 12 (PTI) "High growth and low inflation" marked the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government, the BJP said on Wednesday after official data showed retail inflation has declined to a one-year low of 4.75 per cent.

Party leader Gourav Vallabh said inflation has maintained a downward trend, be it in clothing, food, spices or oil, and added that its average rate in the last years was 4.64 per cent against the 9.25 per cent during the Congress-led UPA rule.

"It was almost double," he noted.

In a swipe at Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi and Jairam Ramesh over their criticism of price rise during the Modi government, BJP national spokesperson Syed Zafar Islam too said that it was much higher during the UPA government's 10-year tenure till 2014.

Vallabh said in a statement that even the food inflation during the UPA rule was 12.1 per cent, while it stood at 3.93 per cent during the Modi government.

Other good developments have also come on the economic front, he said, adding that the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and various global agencies have upgraded their forecast for India's GDP growth after it clocked a robust 8.2 per cent in the last fiscal.

The term of the Modi government can be summed up as an era of high growth and low inflation, Vallabh said.

Citing the forecast of good monsoon rains, Islam said it would further ease up retail inflation.

Retail inflation continued its downward slide to reach a one-year low of 4.75 per cent in May due to a marginal decline of prices in the food basket and remained within the RBI's comfort zone of below six per cent, according to government data released on Wednesday.

The Consumer Price Index (CPI) based retail inflation -- on a declining trend since January -- was 4.83 per cent in April 2024 and 4.31 per cent in May 2023 (the previous low). PTI KR IJT