The September Consumer Price Index (CPI) numbers were the first indication of the waning of the base effect. In the previous policy, the RBI governor had spoken about the base effect problem with respect to inflation. The corresponding period to July and August last year were high inflation months and hence this year was likely to appear lower due to the base effect. Since inflation is a point-to-point number it tends to get influenced by base effect quite drastically. In fact, this base effect was the key reason why the RBI governor had expressed concerns about a rate cut.
