India's Retail Inflation Rises To 5.03% In Feb, IIP Contracts 1.6% In Jan: NSO

The rate of price rise in the food basket accelerated to 3.87 per cent in February, as against 1.89 per cent in the preceding month.

(Representative Image/Getty)

New Delhi: The country's retail inflation which is caculated by Consumer Price Index (CPI) rose to 5.03 per cent in the month of February on account of higher food prices, government data showed on Friday.

The data also revealed that India’s factory output which is measured in terms of the Index of Industrial Production (IIP) witnessed a contraction of 1.6 per cent in January. 

The retail inflation for the month of January 2021 was 4.06 per cent.

The rate of price rise in the food basket accelerated to 3.87 per cent in February, as against 1.89 per cent in the preceding month, as per data released by the National Statistical Office (NSO).

The datat also highlighted that inflation in 'fuel and light' category remained elevated at 3.53 per cent during the month vis-a-vis 3.87 per cent in January.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI), which mainly factors in the retail inflation while arriving at its monetary policy, has been asked to keep CPI inflation at 4 per cent with a margin of 2 per cent on either side.

This is the third consecutive month that the CPI data has come within the central bank's upper margin of 6 per cent.