Country's retail inflation accelerated to 8.59 per cent in April compared with 8.31 per cent a month ago owing to rising food prices.
As per the Government data, food inflation increased to 9.66 per cent against 9.1 per cent in March.
Vegetables were costlier by 17.5 per cent in April as against 16.8 per cent in the previous month. The rate of price rise in fruits was 21.73 per cent as against 17.19 per cent in March.
Inflation in milk was 11.42 per cent in April as against 11.02 per cent in the previous month.
Incidentally, Amul and Mother Dairy, the two major milk suppliers in Delhi have increased prices by Rs 2 a litre over the weekend.
The price rise in protein-rich items like egg, meat and fish was 9.41 per cent, while cereals and pulses became costlier by 9.67 per cent and 5.05 per cent respectively.
Rising inflation may prevent the Reserve Bank of India from easing
interest rates in its monetary policy review on June 3.Amid rising clamour within the industry for a cut in interest rate, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) had chosen to keep the policy rate (repo) unchanged at 8 per cent in its April monetary policy review as retail inflation was "sticky".
The RBI is scheduled to announce its next monetary policy review on June 1.
As per the data, the corresponding provisional inflation rates for rural and urban areas for April 2014 are 9.25 per cent and 7.69 per cent, respectively.
The Government will release inflation based on wholesale price index (WPI) on May 14.