India's retail inflation edged up to 0.71% in November 2025, according to data released on Friday by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation. This marks an increase of 46 basis points from the record low of 0.25% in October. The rise in inflation is primarily attributed to increasing prices of vegetables, protein-rich items including eggs, meat, and fish, as well as spices, and fuel and light.

While overall inflation remains subdued, the uptick suggests that the decline seen in previous months is beginning to level out. The Consumer Price Index (CPI) based retail inflation had previously fallen to a record low in October, mainly due to lower prices aided by GST rate cuts and a favorable base effect.

Food inflation remained in negative territory for the sixth consecutive month, although the rate of decline has narrowed. The Consumer Food Price Index (CFPI) contracted by 3.91% in November, compared to a steeper fall of 5.02% in October. The increase in food prices is a key factor in the rise of overall inflation. The narrowing of food deflation by 111 basis points indicates that essential commodities, especially perishables, became costlier during the month. Vegetable prices declined 22.20%, compared with a sharper 27.57% fall a month earlier.

There was a parallel rise in inflation across both rural and urban areas in November. Rural headline inflation rose to 0.10% from -0.25% in October. Rural food inflation improved to -4.05% from -4.85% a month earlier. Urban inflation climbed to 1.40% from 0.88% in October, with urban food inflation strengthening to -3.60% from -5.18%. Urban inflation saw a significant increase from 0.88% in October to 1.40% in November 2025, while the Rural sector's inflation moved from -0.25% in October to 0.10% in November 2025.

Fuel and light inflation also contributed to the rise, increasing to 2.32% in November from 1.98% in October 2025. Housing inflation remained relatively steady at 2.95%, slightly lower than the 2.96% recorded in October. Education inflation eased to 3.38% from 3.54%, while health inflation fell to 3.60% from 3.81%. Transport and communication inflation slipped slightly to 0.88% from 0.94%.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) had earlier projected inflation to average 2.0% in the current fiscal year, a significant decrease from the previous estimate of 2.6%. The central bank had also cut key policy interest rates by 25 bps to 5.25%, characterizing the Indian economy as being in a "rare Goldilocks period" of high growth and low inflation. The RBI last week raised the FY26 GDP growth projection to 7.3%, from its earlier estimate of 6.8%. India recorded an 8% growth in the September quarter, and 7.8% in the June quarter.

Among states with a population exceeding 50 lakhs, Kerala recorded the highest combined inflation at 8.27% in November 2025. Other major states with high inflation included Karnataka (2.64%), Jammu & Kashmir (2.31%), Tamil Nadu (2.08%), and Punjab (1.65%).

The next release date for the December 2025 CPI data is scheduled for January 12, 2026.