India's Retail Inflation Drops To 7-Month Low Of 3.61% In February 2025

Retail inflation for February eased to 3.61 per cent, down from a revised 4.26 per cent in January (previously 4.31 per cent). This marks the lowest inflation rate since July

Vegetable prices fell by 1.07 per cent year-on-year, in contrast to an 11.35 per cent increase in January

Source : PTI

India’s retail inflation, measured by the Consumer Price Index (CPI), fell to a seven-month low of 3.61 per cent in February 2025, down from 4.31 per cent in January, as vegetable prices declined, according to government data released on Wednesday. Retail inflation for February eased to 3.61 per cent, down from a revised 4.26 per cent in January (previously 4.31 per cent). This marks the lowest inflation rate since July.

Food inflation also softened to 3.75 per cent in the month of February, down from a revised 5.97 per cent in January. Vegetable prices fell by 1.07 per cent year-on-year, in contrast to an 11.35 per cent increase in January. Meanwhile, cereal prices rose by 6.1 per cent, slightly down from 6.24 per cent in January, and pulse prices saw a decrease of 0.35 per cent, reversing a 2.59 per cent increase in the previous month.

India’s Industrial Output

India's industrial production grew by 5 per cent in January 2025, driven primarily by the strong performance in the manufacturing sector, according to official data released on Wednesday.

The government also revised the industrial growth figure for December 2024 to 3.5 per cent, up from the provisional estimate of 3.2 per cent released last month. Factory output, measured by the Index of Industrial Production (IIP), had risen by 4.2 per cent in January previous year.

Data from the National Statistics Office (NSO) revealed that the manufacturing output increased by 5.5 per cent in January 2025, compared to 3.6 per cent in the same month last year.

However, mining production growth slowed to 4.4 per cent from 6 per cent year-on-year (YoY), and power output growth decelerated to 2.4 per cent in January 2025, down from 5.6 per cent in the previous year.

For the April-January period, the IIP grew by 4.2 per cent, a slowdown from the 6 per cent growth recorded during the same period last year.