After wholesale, retail inflation also softened; reached a six-year low of 3.34%

Retail inflation fell marginally to 3.34 per cent in March from 3.61 per cent in February. This has been confirmed in the government data released on Tuesday. Retail inflation fell marginally to a six-year low of 3.34 per cent in March due to softening of prices of vegetables and protein-rich food items.

Consumer Price Index (CPI) based inflation was 3.61 per cent in February and 4.85 per cent in March last year. The retail inflation rate in March 2025 was the lowest since August 2019. At that time it was 3.28 per cent.

What came out in the inflation figures?

Food inflation was 2.69 per cent in March, while it was 3.75 per cent in February and 8.52 per cent in March 2024. Last week, the Reserve Bank announced a cut of 25 basis points in the key short-term lending rate i.e. repo rate in view of the reduction in inflation.

RBI has projected retail inflation to be 4% in 2025-26
The Reserve Bank has projected the CPI-based retail inflation rate to be 4 percent for the current financial year 2025-26. Inflation is estimated to be 3.6 percent in the first quarter, 3.9 percent in the second quarter, 3.8 percent in the third quarter and 4.4 percent in the fourth quarter. According to the RBI, inflation risks are evenly balanced.

Meanwhile, according to government data released on Tuesday, wholesale price-based inflation also fell to a six-month low of 2.05 percent in March due to falling prices of vegetables, potatoes and other food items. Wholesale Price Index (WPI)-based inflation was 2.38 percent in February. It was 0.26 percent in March last year.