NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India's wholesale price index in February rose at a slower pace than in the previous month, mainly due a sharper fall in manufactured products and power prices, government data showed on Thursday.

In February, wholesale prices rose 0.20% year-on-year, compared with a 0.27% gain in January. The latest figures were also slower than economists' expectation of a 0.25% rise, according to a Reuters poll.

In February, manufactured product prices fell 1.27% against a 1.13% fall in the previous month, while fuel and power prices fell 1.59% from a year earlier, compared with a 0.51% drop in January. Food prices rose 4.09% year-on-year compared with an increase of 3.79% in January, while prices of primary articles were up 4.49% versus a rise of 3.84%.

Earlier this week, government data showed the country's retail inflation rate remained steady in February.

(Reporting by Aftab Ahmed; Editing by Kim Coghill and Muralikumar Anantharaman)