January CPI inflation comes in at 4.06%; second consecutive month of headline figure within MPC range

Consumer Price Index-based inflation (CPI) for the month of January came in at 4.06 per cent, the second consecutive month of retail inflation falling within the Monetary Policy Committee’s medium-term inflation target range of 4 (+/-2 per cent), official data showed on February 12.

This was on the back of further cooling down of food prices. Consumer Food Price Inflation (CFPI) was 1.89 per cent in January, data by the National Statistical Office (NSO) showed.

In December, CPI inflation had come down to within the MPC’s target range after eight months of high inflation, at 4.59 per cent. Before that, the last time inflation was below 6 per cent was in March 2020. Since then, it has gone as high as 7.61 per cent in October.

The biggest drop in prices came in the vegetables ‘sub-group’. Vegetable inflation was -15.84 per cent year-on-year. However, inflation in the case of pulses, meat and fish and eggs showed high inflation, at 13.39 per cent, 12.54 per cent, and 12.85 per cent, respectively.