Official data released on Tuesday showed that retail inflation was essentially constant in February, coming in at 5.09% from 5.1% in January. According to the Consumer Price Index (CPI), inflation in January 2023 was 5.1%, while in February it was 6.4% as per government data.
The National Statistical Office reported that retail inflation in the food basket was 8.66 percent in February, a slight increase from 8.3 percent the month before.
The government has given the Reserve Bank of India the mandate to guarantee that retail inflation stays at 4% with a margin of 2% on each side.
The central bank estimated last month that the CPI would increase by 5.4% throughout the current fiscal year (2023–2024), but it increased by 5% during the January–March quarter.
Senior economist Suvodeep Rakshit of Kotak Institutional Equities told Reuters that the February CPI inflation figure did not raise any new concerns. Our projection for the inflation trajectory in FY2025 is 4.5%–5%, with a significant base effect-driven decline to roughly 3% in the second quarter.”
