{"id":428366,"date":"2026-03-12T18:00:17","date_gmt":"2026-03-12T11:00:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.swingfish.trade\/blog\/market-news\/2026\/03\/indias-inflation-rate-increases-to-3-2-in-february-slightly-above-consensus\/"},"modified":"2026-03-12T18:00:17","modified_gmt":"2026-03-12T11:00:17","slug":"indias-inflation-rate-increases-to-3-2-in-february-slightly-above-consensus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swingfish.trade\/blog\/market-news\/2026\/03\/indias-inflation-rate-increases-to-3-2-in-february-slightly-above-consensus\/","title":{"rendered":"India&#8217;s inflation rate increases to 3.2% in February, slightly above consensus"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<ul>\n<li>CPI Y\/Y 3.2% vs 3.1% expected<\/li>\n<li>Prior 2.1% (revised to 2.7%)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p data-path-to-node=\"1\">India\u2019s retail inflation accelerated more than expected in February, reaching 3.21% on an annual basis. This follows a revised reading of 2.74% in January and surpasses the 3.1% consensus estimate predicted by economists.<\/p>\n<p data-path-to-node=\"2\">The latest data, released by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) on Thursday, marks the second month of reporting under India&#8217;s newly revised Consumer Price Index (CPI) framework, which recently shifted its base year from 2012 to 2024.<\/p>\n<p data-path-to-node=\"5\">The primary catalyst for the uptick was a jump in food prices. Inflation for the Consumer Food Price Index (CFPI) rose to 3.47% in February, a significant increase from the 2.13% recorded in January.<\/p>\n<p data-path-to-node=\"6,1,0\" id=\"p-rc_f7b02994625e9536-19\">Under the new 2024 base year, the weightage of food in the CPI basket has been reduced from approximately 46% to 36.75%. Despite this lower weight, the volatility in food costs remains a dominant factor in headline inflation movements. <\/p>\n<p data-path-to-node=\"9,0,0\" id=\"p-rc_f7b02994625e9536-21\">The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) had previously cautioned that an &#8220;unfavourable base effect&#8221; from early 2025 would likely lead to a year-on-year uptick. Geopolitical tensions in the Middle East, particularly involving the Strait of Hormuz, have raised concerns about future &#8220;imported inflation&#8221; via rising global oil and energy prices.<\/p>\n<p data-path-to-node=\"12\" id=\"p-rc_f7b02994625e9536-23\">The inflation rate remains below the Reserve Bank of India\u2019s (RBI) medium-term target of 4.0%. In its February meeting, the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) kept interest rates unchanged at 5.25%, maintaining a &#8220;neutral&#8221; stance.<\/p>\n<p class=\"source-inline-chip-container ng-star-inserted\">The central bank is expected to remain in a &#8220;wait-and-see&#8221; mode, balancing the need to support 8% GDP growth with the risk of supply-side shocks in the food and energy sectors.<\/p>\n<p>                            This article was written by Giuseppe Dellamotta at investinglive.com.<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>CPI Y\/Y 3.2% vs 3.1% expected Prior 2.1% (revised to 2.7%) India\u2019s retail inflation accelerated more than expected in February, reaching 3.21% on an annual basis. This follows a revised reading of&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":216,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[86],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-428366","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-market-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swingfish.trade\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/428366","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swingfish.trade\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swingfish.trade\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swingfish.trade\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/216"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swingfish.trade\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=428366"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.swingfish.trade\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/428366\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.swingfish.trade\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=428366"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swingfish.trade\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=428366"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.swingfish.trade\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=428366"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}