India's Retail Inflation Surges To 6.07% In February Due To Rise In Food Prices: Govt Data

Retail Inflation Rate: The inflation rate has remained above the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) threshold of 6 per cent for the second month in a row.

Retail inflation has been on the rise since September last year (Getty Images)

Retail Inflation Rate: India's retail inflation, which is measured by the Consumer Price Index (CPI), rose to 6.07 per cent in February mainly due to an uptick in food prices, according to government data released on Monday. 

The retail inflation was 5.03 per cent in February 2021 and 6.01 per cent in January this year. The inflation rate has remained above the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) threshold of 6 per cent for the second month in a row.

According to the data released by the National Statistical Office (NSO), the rate of price rise in the food basket was 5.89 per cent in February, up from 5.43 per in the preceding month.

The RBI generally factors in the CPI data while deciding its bi-monthly monetary policy. Last month, the RBI's Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) kept the repo rate unchanged for the tenth time in a row at 4 per cent.

READ | WPI Inflation Rate Rises To 13.11% In February After Spike In Fuel Prices

Wholesale price-based inflation (WPI) has also accelerated to 13.11 per cent in February, compared to 12.96 per cent in the previous month.  This was largely driven by higher fuel prices.

On a year-on-year basis, the WPI data showed an exponential rise last month over February 2021, when it stood at 4.83 per cent.

"The high rate of inflation in February, 2022 is primarily due to rise in prices of mineral oils, basic metals, chemicals and chemical products, crude petroleum and natural gas, food articles and non-food articles etc. as compared to the corresponding month of the previous year," the Ministry of Commerce and Industry said in its review of 'Index Numbers of Wholesale Price in India' for February.