New Delhi, March 16 (IANS) India’s inflation rate, based on the wholesale price index, edged up to 2.13 per cent during February, compared to the same month of the previous year, primarily due to the increase in prices of manufactured goods, basic metals, food articles, and textiles, according to data released by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry on Monday.

The WPI inflation for February was higher than the corresponding figure of 1.81 per cent recorded in January this year.

The price of food articles declined by (-) 1.33 per cent in February compared to January, while the prices of minerals fell by (-) 1.21 per cent. However, the price of crude petroleum and natural gas rose 4.17 per cent, and non- food articles turned costlier by 0.83 per cent during the month compared to the previous month.

The firming up in the inflation comes against the backdrop of the build-up to the Iran war, which broke out on February 28, leading to increased volatility in global commodity prices.

Meanwhile, India’s inflation rate, based on the new Consumer Price Index (CPI) series with 2024 as the base year, edged up to 3.21 per cent for February compared to the same month of the previous year, according to data released by the Ministry of Statistics last week.

The RBI tracks CPI inflation for formulating the monetary policy. There was an increase of 0.47 per cent in the CPI inflation in February compared to the revised figure of 2.74 per cent for January this year, when the new series was launched.

However, there was a more than 10 per cent decline in the index of key vegetables, including tomato, peas and cauliflower, in February compared with January, the figures showed.

Overall food inflation for the month of February compared to the same month of the previous year stood at 3.47 per cent, while housing inflation was estimated at 2.12 per cent.

The Reserve Bank of India’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) on Friday raised its inflation forecast for FY27, marking a shift from the central bank’s earlier expectation of disinflation. CPI inflation projections for Q1 and Q2 of FY27 have been revised slightly upward to 4 per cent and 4.2 per cent, respectively.

“The slight upward revision in the inflation outlook is primarily due to an increase in prices of precious metals, which contribute about 60-70 basis points. The underlying inflation continues to be low,” the RBI said.

–IANS

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