Zee Media Bureau
New Delhi: Rising for the third straight month, retail inflation in February rose to 5.37 percent on the back of costlier prices of food itemes especially vegetables and beverages.
In the month of January, the consumer price index (CPI) inflation had stood at 5.11 percent.
However, the 5.37 percent is considerably down from 7.88% compared to the corresponding month in 2014.
The CPI inflation was at 5.0 percent in December. In November, it stood at 4.38 percent -- the lowest level since government started computing the new series of data in January 2012.
For January, the retail inflation with a new base year has been revised upwards to 5.19 percent from 5.11 percent estimated earlier.
The CPI in February last year was 7.88 percent.
Food inflation during the month under review rose to 6.79 percent from 6.06 percent in January. The rise in inflation in food items was mainly due to costlier vegetables, pulses and beverages.
The rate of price rise in vegetables went up by 13.01 percent; in pulses and products by 10.61 percent, while the same in the food & beverages category rates moved up by 6.76 percent.
Inflation in fruits was 8.93 percent.
The Central Statistics Office (CSO) has revised the base year to 2012 from 2010 for computing the consumer price index.
After releasing the new series, Chief Statistician T C A Anant told reporters that "inflation in 2014-15 will be lower than the 2013-14 level".
With PTI Inputs
