The consumer price index (CPI)-based retail inflation for February slipped to 3.61 per cent amid a decline in the rate of price rise in vegetables and protein-rich items.

The consumer price index-based retail inflation was at 4.26 per cent in January and 5.09 per cent in February 2024.

Advertisement

There is a decline of 65 basis points in the headline inflation of February in comparison to January, which is the lowest year-on-year inflation after July 2024.

Further, the year-on-year inflation rate based on the All India Consumer Food Price Index (CFPI) for February compared to last year is 3.75 per cent (Provisional). The corresponding inflation rates for rural and urban are 4.06 per cent and 3.20 per cent , respectively.

The National Statistical Office (NSO) said that the significant decline in headline inflation and food inflation during February is mainly attributed to the decline in inflation of vegetables, egg, meat and fish, pulses and its products, and milk and its products.

In the rural sector, a sharp decline in headline and food inflation was observed in February. The Consumer Food Price Index (CFPI) based food inflation in the rural sector is observed as 4.06 per cent in February in comparison to 6.31 per cent in January.

Further, for the urban sector, a significant decline from 3.87 per cent in January to 3.32 per cent (Provisional) in February is observed in the headline inflation of the urban sector. A similar decline is observed in food inflation, which decreased from 5.53 per cent in January 2025 to 3.20 per cent in February 2025.

Notably, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), which has been mandated to ensure retail inflation remains at 4 per cent (+/- 2 per cent), reduced the short-term lending rate (repo) by 25 basis points last month to ease concerns on the inflation front.

The year-on-year Housing inflation rate for February was recorded at 2.91 per cent as compared to 2.82 per cent last month.

The Ministry of Statistics & Programme Implementation has also released the Quick Estimates of the Index of Industrial Production (IIP).

The IIP growth rate for January is recorded at 5per cent , which was 3.2 per cent in the month of December 2024.

The growth rates of the three sectors, Mining, Manufacturing and Electricity for January are 4.4 per cent , 5.5 per cent and 2.4 per cent respectively.