New Delhi, July 11 -- India's retail inflation is likely to decline further to 2.3% in June from 2.8% in May, according to a Mint poll of 20 economists. The continued moderation in food inflation drove retail inflation to a new low in over six years, supporting the preemptive rate cut of 50 basis points by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) at its last month's policy meeting. Economists polled by Mint expect the Consumer Price Index (CPI) inflation to fall in the range of 1.8-2.6%. The official data is scheduled to be released on 14 July. If the poll projection proves accurate, this would mark the eighth consecutive monthly decline in inflation-the longest streak of continuous easing in more than a decade. This would also bring the CPI inflation to an average of 2.8% for the first quarter of 2025-26, a tad lower than the RBI's projection of 2.9%. Icra chief economist Aditi Nayar said even with typical seasonal increases in food prices, food and beverage inflation will likely fall below 1% in June, with a high base from June 2024 helping in pulling the headline number down. Food inflation, which constitutes nearly 40% of the CPI basket, was extremely high in May and June last year at 8.7% and 9.4%, respectively. While headline inflation is expected to move closer to the lower limit of the RBI's inflation target in June, economists issued caution on core inflation, which has been above 4% for a few months now, and could see a further uptick mainly due to rising gold prices. Despite declining inflation, another rate cut in August is largely ruled out after June's larger-than-expected rate cut. However, economists do expect rate cuts of 25-50 bps in the second half of the year, while being watchful of the global risks from trade tariffs....