The retail inflation in September rose to 3.99 per cent due to higher prices of food items, the government data showed on Monday.

It was close to the Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) target level of 4 per cent. The consumer price index (CPI) based inflation was registered at 3.28 per cent in August. In September last year, it was 3.7 per cent.

Food prices, which is a gauge to measure changes in kitchen budgets, grew 5.11 per cent in September as against 2.99 per cent in the preceding month, data from the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) showed.

The inflation rate in cereals and products stood at 1.66 per cent in September against 1.3 per cent in August while vegetable inflation stood at 15.4 per cent in September against 6.9 per cent in August.

Pulses and products recorded an inflation of 8.4 per cent in September against 6.94 per cent in August.