New Delhi: The Ministry of Commerce & Industry on Monday released the Wholesale price inflation data for the month of February. The WPI rose for the fourth straight month, at 2.13 per cent in February. The increase in the inflation rate was a result of increase in prices of food and non-food articles. Despite the decrease in vegetable prices, on a month-on-month basis the prices went up.
Wholesale Price Index (WPI)-based inflation stood at 1.81 per cent in the previous month as compared to 2.45 per cent in February 2025.
“Positive rate of inflation in February 2026 is primarily due to an increase in prices of other manufacturing, manufacture of basic metals, non-food articles, food articles and textiles, etc.,” the industry ministry said in a statement.
Inflation in food articles was recorded at 2.19 per cent in February 2026, while it was 1.55 per cent in the January 2026.
The vegetable category eased to 4.73 per cent in the previous month, while it was 6.78 per cent in January.
However, egg, meat, fish, pulses, and potato witnessed a rise in inflation in February as compared to January.
Manufactured goods: WPI inflation appreciated up to 2.92 per cent in February, from 2.86 per cent in the preceding month.
Non-food articles category inflation jumped to 8.80 per cent in February, from 7.58 per cent in January.
Month Over Month (M-o-M in %) change in WPI Index
| All Commodities/Major Groups | Weight | 09/25/26 | 10/25/26 | 11/25/26 | Dec-25 (F) | Jan-26 (P) | Feb-26 (P) |
| All Commodities | 100 | -0.13 | 0.06 | 0.71 | 0.64 | 0.38 | 0.25 |
| I. Primary Articles | 22.62 | -0.84 | -0.37 | 2.23 | 0.67 | -0.15 | -0.52 |
| II. Fuel & Power | 13.15 | -0.07 | 1.26 | 0.83 | 1.3 | -1.62 | 1.17 |
| III. Manufactured Products | 64.23 | 0.14 | 0.07 | -0.07 | 0.48 | 1.1 | 0.47 |
| Food Index | 24.38 | -0.72 | -0.05 | 1.67 | 0.36 | -0.87 | -0.67 |
The fuel and power basked recorded Negative inflation, or deflation, at 3.78 per cent in February, vis-a-vis 4.01 per cent in January.
India’s retail inflation jumped to 3.2 per cent in February, as against 2.75 per cent in January.
With inflation on the downside, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has reduced policy interest rates by 1.25 percentage points in 2025-26. The RBI considers inflation data for deciding on repo rate.