Headline Retail Inflation Marginally Rises To 0.71 pc in Nov.

New Delhi: India’s headline retail inflation, measured by the consumer price index (CPI), marginally rose to 0.71 per cent in November from a record low of 0.25 per cent in October. The rise in the inflation in November is mainly due to higher prices of vegetables, eggs, meat and fish, spices, and fuel and light among others, the government said on Friday.

According to data released by the National Statistics Office (NSO), deflation in food items was 3.91 per cent in November against 5.02 per cent in October. “The rise in headline and food inflation during November 2025 is mainly attributed to an increase in inflation of vegetables, eggs, meat and fish, spices, fuel and light,” the NSO said, adding that fuel and light prices rose 2.32 per cent in November compared to 1.98 per cent in October this year.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI), earlier this month, significantly lowered the inflation projection for the current fiscal to 2 per cent from 2.6 per cent estimated earlier, as the economy continues to witness rapid disinflation. The RBI had cut key policy interest rates by 25 bps to 5.25 per cent, saying that the Indian economy is in a ‘rare Goldilocks period’ marked by high growth and low inflation.

Last week, the central bank also raised the country's economic growth projection for FY26 to 7.3 per cent, from its earlier estimate of 6.8 per cent. India recorded an 8 per cent growth in the September quarter, and 7.8 per cent in the June quarter.

Experts, however, said that the November headline inflation was slightly lower than their expectations. “The CPI inflation inched up to 0.7 per cent in November 2025 from the record low of around 0.3 per cent in October 2025, while printing slightly lower than our expectations,” said Aditi Nayar, chief economist, head-research & outreach, ICRA Ltd.

“The uptick was largely led by the narrowing deflation in the food and beverages segment, even as core inflation (CPI excluding F&B, F&L, and petrol and diesel for vehicles) eased marginally between these months. In the F&B segment, as many as 8 of the 12 sub-segments witnessed a hardening in their YoY prints in November 2025 as compared to October 2025,” Nayar said.

“Nevertheless, vegetables and pulses remained in the deflationary zone for the tenth consecutive month, while spices sustained in this territory for the seventeenth month in a row. These three items account for 24 per cent of the F&B segment by weight, and trends in these segments have weighed on food inflation prints in 8M FY2026,” she added.