The decline in energy costs accelerated to 9.1%, with electricity prices leading the drop, while price gains for food excluding fresh items slowed to 5.7% in February from 6.2% in the prior month. Service prices — a key gauge of underlying inflation — continued to rise by 1.4% from a year earlier. Rice prices, which drove last year’s surge, increased 17.1%, continuing to moderate after a record 101.7% jump May 2025.
