Independence Day 2023: What's been India's inflation trajectory in last one year? check key figures

livemint.com:

Independence Day 2023: Over the last one year, India's annual retail inflation has witnessed both upside and downside peaks over price fluctuations in the basket and due to global headwinds. Government data released yesterday showed that the country's consumer price index (CPI) inflation surged sharply to a 15-month high peak of 7.44 per cent in July 2023, driven by high food and vegetable prices. July CPI print has breached the Reserve Bank of India's upper tolerance limit of 6 per cent for the first time in five months.

The consumer food price index (CFPI) in July also surged to 11.51 per cent - the highest level since October 2020, according to data released by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation on August 14. Street estimates had predicted that July's CPI print will breach the central bank's 6 per cent limit in July, however a 7.44 per cent-record mark was completely unexpected. On a month-on-month level, retail inflation came in at 4.81 per cent in June after easing sharply to 4.25 per cent in May-which was a 25-month low.

Broadly, India's inflation trajectory is expected to be benign this year, but highly vulnerable to changes in food prices, DSP Mutual Fund in its August edition of Netra report. With almost half of the CPI basket comprising food items, any price changes in this category have a substantial effect on the overall inflation rate in India. So, even small fluctuations in food prices can have a significant impact on the cost of living for the average Indian consumer, according to DSP.