New Delhi, Mar 12 (FN Bureau) India’s retail inflation, measured by consumer price index (CPI) eased to 5.09% in February, 2024 from 5.10% in the previous month, according to official data released on Tuesday. Retail inflation was 6.44% in February last year. The retail inflation print has remained within the Reserve Bank of India (RBI)’s tolerance band of 2-6% for nearly six months now. As per data released by the Ministry of Statistics & Programme Implementation (MoSPI), food inflation in February this year was 8.66%, as compared to 8.30% in the previous month. While rural inflation in the month of February this year remained unchanged at 5.34% sequentially, urban inflation dipped to 4.78% as against 4.92% in the previous month.
The data showed vegetable inflation was 30.25% in February this year, as against 27.03% in the previous month. Pulses and product inflation in February this year was 18.90% as against 19.54% in the previous month. Further, fuel and light inflation saw a contraction of (-)0.77% in February this year as compared to a contraction of (-)0.60% in the previous month. Cereals and product inflation eased to 7.60% in February from 7.83% in the previous month. Commenting on February inflation data, ICRA Chief Economist Aditi Nayar said that core-CPI inflation (CPI excluding food and beverages, fuel and light, and petrol and diesel for vehicles) at 3.5% in February 2024 is the lowest reading for this metric based on the available data since January 2015. “At present, ICRA estimates the headline CPI inflation to dip to sub-5.0% in March 2024 from 5.1% in February 2024, led by a dip in fuel and light (amid the cut in LPG prices) as well as the food inflation prints, even though the latter is likely to remain elevated above the 7.0% mark,” she said.