The data of the Ministry of Statistics show that Kerala registered the highest monthly inflation in February 2025 with 7.31 percent, mainly driven by food and services. | Photo credit: K Ragesh
In fiscal year 2000-25, states such as Kerala, Bihar, Odisha consistently informed high inflation rates, above the national average, emerging as atypical in the midst of a broader decrease in price levels throughout the country.
The average average IPC inflation of all India for the period between April 2024 and April 2025 was 4.51 percent. Kerala registered the highest average of 12 months at 5.88 percent, closely followed by Bihar (5.79 percent), Odisha (5.72 percent) and Chhattisgarh (5.57 percent).
Business lines The analysis of the data of the Ministry of Statistics and Implementation of the Program (MOSPI) shows that Kerala registered the highest monthly inflation in February 2025 with 7.31 percent, mainly driven by food and services.
According to Anitha Rangan, economist, Equirus securities, “Kerala is largely a non -agrarian state. High remittances could have had a hand to boost greater inflation. But food prices here have been higher.”
In Karnataka, inflation remained above 4 percent during most of the year, reaching its maximum point at 6.11 percent in May 2024. Experts pointed out that in Karnatak
In contrast, Delhi and Telangana constantly recorded the lowest inflation rates. Delhi’s average CPI was 2.35 percent, while Telangana stood at 3.47 percent. In fact, Telangana saw that inflation fell from 5.68 percent in April 2024 to only 1.26 percent in April 2025, the most pronounced fall among all states.
Rural-urban inflation spaces seemed to shape many of these results. “When rural inflation is higher than Urban, the main IPC for the State tends to be higher than All-India. The predominant factor in rural inflation is food,” Rangan added.
Other high inflation states included Haryana (5.08 percent), Uttar Pradesh (5.08 percent) and Tamil Nadu (4.54 percent), everything that exceeds the average national average the full year.
Meanwhile, Delhi (2.35 percent), Gujarat (4.26 percent) and Jharkhand (3.65 percent) managed to stay constantly below the average during the year.
Vivek Iyer, partner, Grant Thornton Bharat, pointed out the structural causes of state inflation differences, “food and fuel are the key drivers of IPC inflation, and differences in price points in these elements in all states result in deviations between states. The costs of the supply chain have a significant relationship in these differentials.”
As India continues to deal with inflation in the midst of a varied dynamic at the state level, experts emphasize the importance of specific intervention, special in food supply chains, to reduce volatility and provide more uniformity to pricing experience throughout the country.
Posted on May 20, 2025