Consumer Price Index (CPI) or retail inflation in February 2019 jumped to a four-month high of 2.57 percent as against an 18-month low of 2.05 percent in January 2019.

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The Consumer Price Index-based inflation for January was revised down to a 19-month low of 1.97 percent from an earlier estimate of 2.05 percent.

The retail inflation number for February 2019 is the highest since October 2018 when it stood at 3.38 percent, the data released by the Central Statistics Office under the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) showed.

A poll by CNBC-TV18 had expected inflation to be about 2.37 percent in February as compared to 2.05 percent in January. The CPI inflation was expected to inch up in February as food prices hardened on a month-on-month basis.

source: tradingeconomics.com

Food inflation was lower at -0.66 percent in February against 3.26 percent in the same month last year.

On a monthly basis, consumer food price index moved up by 0.15 percent in February against January 2019.

Protein-rich items such as meat & fish and eggs witnessed a quick rise price at 5.92 percent and 0.86 percent respectively in February. Prices of cereal and products went up at 1.32 percent.

In the fuel and light category, the rate of price rise slowed to 1.24 percent from 2.20 percent in January.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) projected the Consumer Price Index (CPI) at 2.8 percent for the January-March quarter and 3.2-3.4 percent for the first quarter of the next financial year, that is the April-September period.

"Continuing deflation in food items, a sharp fall in fuel inflation and some edging down of inflation excluding food and fuel contributed to the decline in headline inflation," the statement said.

CPI is widely used as a macroeconomic indicator of inflation, as a tool by governments and central banks for inflation targeting and for monitoring price stability, and as deflators in the national accounts.

The RBI cut the key policy rates by 25 basis points in its sixth bi-monthly policy announced on Thursday. With this, the repo rate stands at 6.25 percent, while the reverse repo rate stands at 6 percent.

Retail inflation jumped to a four-month high of 2.57 per cent in February due to costlier food articles, according to official data released Tuesday.

The Consumer Price Index-based inflation for January was revised down to a 19-month low of 1.97 per cent from earlier estimate of 2.05 per cent.

The retail inflation number for February 2019 is the highest since October 2018 when it stood at 3.38 per cent, the data released by the Central Statistics Office under the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) showed.

First Published:Mar 12, 2019 5:31 PM IST