Year-Month India Urban and Rural Combined Consumer Price Index Report

List of Key Chapter Titles

1. Key Highlights
2. All-India General Index and Food Price Index Year-on-Year Inflation Rates (February 2025 vs. February 2024)
3. All-India General Index and Food Price Index Monthly Changes (February 2025 vs. January 2025)
4. Response Rate
5. Next CPI Release Date
6. All-India General, Group, and Sub-group CPI and CFPI Data (Final for January 2025 and Provisional for February 2025)
7. All-India General, Group, and Sub-group CPI and CFPI Year-on-Year Inflation Rates (Provisional for February 2025)
8. State-wise Rural, Urban, and Combined General CPI Data (Final for January 2025 and Provisional for February 2025)
9. Year-on-Year Inflation Rates for Major States (Rural, Urban, and Combined) (Provisional for February 2025)
10. All-India General CPI Time Series Data from January 2013 Onwards
11. All-India General CPI Year-on-Year Inflation Rate Time Series Data from January 2014 Onwards

Document Introduction

This report is released by the National Statistical Office (NSO), Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, Government of India. It is a monthly Consumer Price Index (CPI) analysis based on the 2012=100 base, focusing on price changes and inflation trends in rural, urban, and combined (all-India) levels for India in February 2025. As an official and authoritative data release, the report provides core data support for understanding India's macroeconomic stability, changes in the cost of living, and regional development disparities.

The report's key data shows that India's all-India combined CPI year-on-year inflation rate for February 2025 was 3.61% (provisional), a decrease of 65 basis points from January 2025, marking the lowest year-on-year inflation level since July 2024. The Consumer Food Price Index (CFPI) year-on-year inflation rate was 3.75% (provisional), with rural areas at 4.06% and urban areas at 3.20%, showing a significant drop of 222 basis points from January and reaching the lowest level since May 2023.

Urban and rural inflation showed differentiated changes: the overall inflation rate in rural areas decreased from 4.59% in January to 3.79%, and food inflation decreased from 6.31% to 4.06%; the overall inflation rate in urban areas decreased from 3.87% in January to 3.32%, and food inflation decreased from 5.53% to 3.20%. Among core sectors, housing inflation was 2.91% (urban only), fuel & light inflation was -1.33% (combined), education inflation remained at 3.83%, medical care inflation rose to 4.12%, and transport & communication inflation was 2.87%.

Key drivers of the inflation changes included declines in the inflation rates for categories such as vegetables, eggs, meat & fish, pulses & products, and milk & products. Furthermore, the report lists the five items with the highest inflation rates (coconut oil, coconut, gold, silver, onion) and the five items with the lowest inflation rates (ginger, cumin, tomato, cauliflower, garlic). It also identifies Kerala, Chhattisgarh, Karnataka, Bihar, and Jammu & Kashmir as the five States/Union Territories with the highest year-on-year inflation rates.

Regarding data collection, the NSO, through field staff, visited 1114 urban markets and 1181 villages across the country. In February 2025, price collection was achieved from 100% of villages and 98.6% of urban markets, with price reporting rates of 89.8% for rural markets and 92.6% for urban markets, ensuring the breadth and reliability of the data. The report also includes appendices with detailed state-wise rural, urban, and combined CPI data, historical time series data, etc., providing comprehensive reference for policymaking, academic research, and market analysis. The next CPI data for March 2025 will be released on Monday, April 14, 2025 (subject to change in case of a holiday).