Odisha had the highest retail inflation rate at 7.55% in February while Delhi had the lowest at 2.42%
As many as 12 of 22 states tracked clocked retail inflation higher than the all-India average of 5.09% in February.
According to official data released on Tuesday, states including Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Gujarat, Haryana, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Odisha, and Rajasthan recorded higher retail inflation than the all-India average.
In February, Odisha had the highest retail inflation rate at 7.55%, while Delhi had the lowest at 2.42%.
“Inflation is purely a food inflation driven phenomenon which will continue to pressurise inflation in the coming months,” said Madan Sabnavis, chief economist, Bank of Baroda, adding that rural inflation is higher at 5.3% and urban at 4.8%. “This is mainly due to the higher weight of food products in the index,” he said.
Consumer price inflation or the headline retail inflation print came in at 5.09% in February, almost unchanged from 5.1% in January. Consumer food price inflation, however, inched up to 8.66% in February from 8.3% in January and 5.95% in February 2023.
Inflation in the food and beverages basket also rose to 7.76% last month. Amongst categories, vegetable inflation came in the highest at 30.25%. Cereals, eggs, sugar, spices, and pulses are the other pain points here, Sabnavis noted.
While there is an expectation that it could ease to less than 5% in March due to lower core inflation, a respite from high food inflation is unlikely.
“At present, ICRA estimates the headline CPI inflation to dip to sub-5.0% in March 2024 from 5.1% in February 2024, led by a dip in the fuel and light (amid the cut in LPG prices) as well as the food inflation prints, even though the latter is likely to remain elevated above the 7% mark,” said Aditi Nayar, Chief Economist, Head Research and Outreach, ICRA.