Retail inflation rises to 5.03% in February
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Owing to higher food and fuel prices, the consumer price index (CPI) based retail inflation rose to three-month high of 5.03 per cent in February as compared to 4.06 per cent in January, raising fresh concerns about the health of the economy. The Reserve Bank, 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. The food inflation - or inflation in the prices of food items last month rose to 3.87 per cent in February from 1.96 per cent in January.
The National Statistical Office (NSO) under Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation in its data has showed that the Rural CPI (General) in February stood at 4.19 per cent as against 3.23 per cent in January. The Urban CPI (General) stood at 5.96 per cent in February as against 5.13 per cent in January. The index value for Rural, Urban and Combined CPI (General) stood at 156.7, 156.5 and 156.6, respectively, in February 2021.
Vegetable prices fell 6.27 per cent but this was more than offset by sharply rising prices of pulses (12.54 per cent) and oils and fat (20.78 per cent). Prices of protein items also rose sharply, as eggs and meat inflation stood at 11.13 per cent and 11.14 per cent. Transport and communication prices rose 11.4 per cent largely due to increase in fuel and transport prices. The inflation in ‘fuel and light' category remained elevated at 3.53 per cent during the month, compared to 3.87 per cent in January. Core inflation, excluding food and fuel, shot up to a 28-month high of 5.8 per cent during the month, highlighting the price pressure.
The Price data are collected from representative and selected 1114 urban markets and 1181 villages covering all States/UTs through personal visits by field staff of Field Operations Division of NSO, MoSPI on a weekly roster. During the month of February 2021, NSO collected prices from 98.6% villages and 97.8% urban markets while the market-wise prices reported therein were 87.9% for rural and 92.8% for urban.
