India's wholesale price inflation hit 1.81% in January 2026, continuing its rise for the third month in a row, according to government data released on February 16. The surge was due to higher prices in food, non-food articles, and manufactured products. In January 2025, the inflation rate was 2.51%, and it stood at 0.83% in December 2025. The Industry Ministry said, "Positive rate of inflation in January 2026 is primarily due to increase in prices of manufacture of basic metals, other manufacturing, non-food articles, food articles, and textiles, etc." Food articles saw inflation at 1.55% in January, switching from a deflation of 0.43% in December. Vegetable prices jumped sharply with inflation at 6.78%, compared to deflation of 3.50% the previous month. Manufactured products inflation rose to 2.86%, up from 1.82% in December, while non-food articles inflation surged to 7.58% from 2.95%. Meanwhile, fuel and power sectors continued to show deflation at 4.01%, worsening from 2.31% in December. Retail inflation rose slightly to 2.75% in January. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has lowered policy interest rates by 1.25 percentage points this fiscal year due to low inflation and kept the benchmark rate at 5.25% in its recent review.