<h1>Inflation targeting faces renewed pressure as food led retail inflation rises, prompting closer monetary policy monitoring.</h1> Retail consumer price inflation rose modestly in August 2025, driven mainly by higher prices for vegetables, meat, fish and eggs, reversing a nine month decline in the CPI. The National Statistics Office reported a concurrent marginal rise in core inflation and heterogeneity across rural and urban areas and states. The government mandates the central bank to maintain an inflation target centered at four percent with a tolerance band, and the central bank uses retail inflation as the primary guide for its bi monthly monetary policy decisions, making the food led uptick a near term monitorable for policy calibration.