NEW DELHI: India's retail inflation surged to 7.41 per cent in September, remaining above the Reserve Bank of India's mandated range of 2-6 per cent for the third straight quarter that would force the central bank to explain to the government the reasons for not being able to control the price rise.

As per the National Statistical Office (NSO), Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, data released on Wednesday, the Consumer Price Index (CPI) based inflation rose to 7.41 per cent in September from 7 per cent in the previous month. CPI-based retail inflation stood at 4.35 per cent in September 2021.

The price rise has been sharper in rural India. CPI-based inflation in rural India surged to 7.56 per cent in September while for the urban India it stood at 7.27 per cent.

The headline inflation has been above the RBI's mandated tolerance range of 2-6 per cent for three consecutive quarters. Under the flexible inflation targeting framework, the RBI is deemed to have failed in managing price rise if the CPI-based inflation is outside the 2-6 per cent range for three quarters in a row. Now the RBI will have to explain to the government why inflation remained above the mandated 2-6 per cent range.