April  recorded the lowest food inflation since October 2021, indciating a decline of 91 bps

FPJ News Service mumbai

Headline inflation (year-on-year) based on All India Consumer Price Index (CPI) for the month of April 2025 eased to 3.16%, marking the lowest monthly inflation since July 2019. The decline in retail inflation and food inflation during the month of April 2025 is attributed to decline in inflation of vegetables, pulses and products, fruits, meat and fish, personal care and effects and cereals and products. There is a fall of 18 basis points in retail inflation for the month of April 2025 as compared to March 2025, according to official data released by the National Statistics Office on Tuesday.

Food inflation rate based on All India Consumer Food Price Index for the month of April 2025 over April 2024 stood at 1.78%. Corresponding inflation rates for rural and urban areas were 1.85% and 1.64%, respectively. A sharp decline of 91 bps was observed in food inflation in April 2025. The food inflation in April 2025 is the lowest after October 2021.

The price data are collected from selected 1,114 urban markets and 1,181 villages covering all states/UTs through personal visits by field staff of field operations division of NSO, MoSPI on a weekly roster. During the month of April 2025, NSO collected prices from 100% villages and 98.6% urban markets while the market-wise prices reported therein were 89.4% for rural and 92.3% for urban.

The rural sector also observed a significant decline in headline and food inflation in April 2025. The headline inflation stood at 2.92% in April 2025 while the same was 3.25% in March 2025. The CFPI based food inflation in the rural sector is observed as 1.85% in April 2025 in comparison to 2.82% in March, 2025. Urban inflation declined from 3.43% in March 2025 to 3.36% in April.

However, sharp decline is observed in food inflation from 2.48% in March 2025 to 1.64% in April 2025. Housing inflation (year-on-year) rate for the month of April 2025 stood at 3%. Corresponding inflation rate for the month of March, 2025 was 3.03%. The housing index is compiled for the urban sector only.

Year-on-year combined education inflation for both rural and urban sectors for the month of April 2025 is 4.13% as against 3.98% in March. Year-on-year health inflation (rural and urban sector) rate for the month of April 2025 was lower at 4.25% as against 4.26% in March.  Transport and communication inflation rate for the month under review stood higher at 3.73% as against 3.36% in March.