Retail inflation rose to 5.03 per cent in February mainly on account of higher food prices, government data showed on Friday.

The consumer price index (CPI) based retail inflation was at 4.06 per cent in January.

The rate of price rise in the food basket accelerated to 3.87 per cent in February, as against 1.89 per cent in the preceding month, as per data released by the National Statistical Office (NSO).

Inflation in the 'fuel and light' category remained elevated at 3.53 per cent during the month vis-a-vis 3.87 per cent in January.

The Reserve Bank, which mainly factors in the retail inflation while arriving at its monetary policy, has been asked to keep CPI inflation at 4 per cent with a margin of 2 per cent on either side.

The top bank had assumed the retail inflation to be 5.2 per cent for the fourth quarter of the current fiscal, in its monetary policy announcement in February.

The Monetary Policy Committee chaired by the RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das, projected the gross domestic product (GDP) growth to be at 10.5 per cent in the next fiscal year, which is lower than the projections by Economic Survey 2021 and International Monetary Fund.