Retail inflation falls below 2% in Sept
Consumer price index (CPI) based inflation was 2.07% in Aug, 5.49% in Sept 2024
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New Delhi: Retail inflation slipped to 1.54 per cent in September from 2.07 per cent in the preceding month mainly due to subdued prices of food items, including vegetables and pulses, according to government data released on Monday. The consumer price index (CPI) based inflation was 5.49 per cent in September 2024.
“The decline in headline inflation and food inflation during September 2025 is mainly attributed to favourable base effect and decline in inflation of vegetables, oil and fats, fruits, pulses and products, cereal and products, egg, fuel and light,” the National Statistics Office (NSO) said in a statement.
Year-on-year food inflation during September 2025 was (-) 2.28 per cent compared to (-) 0.64 per cent in August and 9.24 per cent in September last year. In its October bi-monthly monetary policy, the Reserve Bank lowered its inflation projection for 2025-26 to 2.6 per cent from 3.1 per cent estimated in August. Regarding the inflation outlook for second half of the fiscal, RBI said that healthy progress of the south-west monsoon, higher kharif sowing, adequate reservoir levels and comfortable buffer stock of foodgrains should keep food prices benign.
The decline in the inflation rate gives the RBI more headroom to continue with a soft money policy by cutting interest rates and injecting more money into the economy to spur growth.
The RBI’s monetary policy committee (MPC) on October 1 slashed its forecast for India’s inflation rate for the financial year 2025-26 to 2.6 per cent from 3.1 per cent in August primarily on account of the GST rate cuts and benign food prices.
