The year-on-year inflation rate for February 2025 was 3.75 per cent, showed the data released by the National Statistics Office (NSO).
Continuing the downward trend, retail inflation fell to a seven-month low of 3.61 per cent in February mainly due to the decline in the rate of price rise in vegetables and protein-rich items, creating space for the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) for the second reduction in interest rate next month.
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he Consumer Price Index-based retail inflation was 4.31 per cent in January and 5.22 per cent in December.
The previous low inflation was in August 2024 at 3.65 per cent. The Consumer Price Index has been on a decline since October.
The year-on-year inflation rate for February 2025 was 3.75 per cent, showed the data released by the National Statistics Office (NSO).
“A sharp decline of 222 basis points is observed in food inflation in February 2025 in comparison to January 2025. The food inflation in February 2025 is the lowest after May 2023,” it said.
The NSO said 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 products; and milk and products.
The RBI, which has been mandated to ensure retail inflation remains at 4 per cent (+/- 2 per cent), has reduced the short-term lending rate (repo) by 25 basis points last month on easing concerns on the inflation front.
The central bank is scheduled to announce the next set of bi-monthly monetary policy on April 9.
Earlier, retail inflation for farm and rural workers eased slightly to 4.61 per cent and 4.73 per cent, respectively, in January from 5.01 per cent and 5.05 per cent in December 2024.
The All-India Consumer Price Index for Agricultural Labourers (CPI-AL) and Rural Labourers (CPI-RL) decreased by 4 points and 3 points, respectively, for the month of January 2025, reaching 1,316 and 1,328 points, the labour ministry said in a statement.
According to the statement, the CPI-AL and CPI-RL stood at 1,320 points and 1,331 points, respectively in December 2024.
“The year-on-year inflation rates based on CPI-AL and CPI-RL for the month of January, 2025 were recorded at 4.61 per cent and 4.73 per cent, respectively, compared to 7.52 per cent and 7.37 per cent in January, 2024. The corresponding figures for December, 2024 were 5.01 per cent for CPI-AL and 5.05 per cent for CPI-RL,” it stated.
The food index for CPI-AL decreased from 1,262 points in December to 1,255 points in January this year.
Similarly, food index for CPI-RL declined from 1,269 points in December to 1,261 points in January.
With PTI inputs