India’s retail inflation spikes to 6.07% in February: Govt data

The retail inflation, which is measured by the Consumer Price Index (CPI), for the month of January was 6.01 per cent.

This is the second consecutive time that the CPI data has come over the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) upper margin of 6 per cent. The government has mandated the central bank to maintain retail inflation at 4 per cent with a margin of 2 per cent on either side for a five-year period ending March 2026.

The CPI data is mainly factored in by the RBI while making its bi-monthly monetary policy. Last month, the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of the central bank kept the repo rate unchanged for the tenth time in a row at 4 per cent.

The Consumer Food Price Index (CFPI) or the inflation in the food basket also spiked on-month during February to 5.85 per cent, from 5.43 per cent in January, the data revealed.

The rise in food basket was due to a spike in prices of oils and fats which climbed 16.44 per cent on-year in February. Apart from this, vegetable prices saw a rise of 6.13 per cent while that meat and fish gained 7.45 per cent and eggs rose 4.15 per cent. The cereals and products segment rose 3.95 per cent and sugar and confectionery grew 5.41 per cent.

Apart from food and beverages, the fuel and light segment rose 8.73 per cent, clothing and footwear gained 8.86 per cent and the housing segment inched up 3.57 per cent.

In a separate economic data released earlier in the day by the Ministry of Commerce & Industry, the wholesale price-based inflation or the WPI came at 13.11 per cent in February.

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