Business: Retail inflation declined to a record low of 0.25 percent in October 2025 due to the reduction in GST rates and other everyday items including food items becoming cheaper. This consumer price index (CPI) based inflation figure is the lowest in the current series (base year 2012). It includes data from January 2014. The retail inflation rate was 1.44 percent in September, 2025 and 6.21 percent in October, 2024.

The National Statistics Office (NSO) released the data on Wednesday and said that the inflation rate has moderated due to reduction in GST rates on about 380 items used by common people along with food products like vegetables, fruits, eggs. The impact of favorable comparative base effect on retail inflation data was also seen. According to the data, due to fall in prices of vegetables, fruits, grains and other commodities, food inflation came down to minus 5.02 percent in October. The inflation rate of food items was (-) 2.33 percent in September and 10.87 percent in October 2024.

0.25 percent cut in repo rate in December may get support: ICRA
ICRA Chief Economist Aditi Nair said, inflation has come down due to reduction in GST rates on many consumer goods along with softening of food prices. The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) of the RBI may further reduce its retail inflation forecast for 2025-26 by 2.6 percent. Nair said, October data will support a cut in repo rate by 0.25 per cent in December. This situation will continue unless GDP growth is surprisingly high in the second quarter.
Relief provided in rural and urban areas also
There has been a decline in retail inflation in rural and urban areas also. The CPI inflation rate in rural areas declined to minus 0.25 percent in October from 1.07 percent in September. Inflation rate in urban areas came down to 0.88 percent last month as compared to 1.83 percent.