New Delhi, July 20 -- India's retail inflation moved above the Reserve Bank of India's 4% mid-point target for the first time in about a year and a half in June. The rise was driven largely by rural inflation, which crossed 4% in May and climbed to 4.74% in June. Urban inflation, by comparison, remained relatively contained at 3.92%.

Rural inflation tends to run higher when food prices rise because food has a greater weight in the rural consumption basket. But price pressures are now spreading to non-food items as well-partly reflecting the impact of the West Asia war and partly a broader increase in prices.

Rural inflation was 80 basis points-or 0.8 percentage points-higher than urban inflation in June, the widest gap in 18 months. The...