Mint Quick Edit | Inflation upshoot: Worse than expected
Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. Reserve Bank of India (RBI) governor Shaktikanta Das has consistently underlined the policy pursuit of low inflation on a durable basis. Government data released on Monday shows just how challenging that task is.
Consumer price inflation in September surged to a nine-month high of 5.49%, measured on the same month of 2023 as its base. This is an upshoot from its 3.65% reading in August. Though a bounce above 5% was expected, since last year’s September had seen a slight cool-off in prices, the latest number is still worrisome.
Much of it was due to food prices. Vegetables, in particular, recorded a red-hot 36% rise. Prices of pulses rose 9.8% from a year earlier, while the overall food inflation rate stood at 9.2% last month.
Hopefully, plentiful rainfall this year will help cool food prices. But war tensions in West Asia have put crude oil prices at the risk of a flare-up that could fan local inflationary embers. We now await October’s inflation data to assess how long it might take for the last bit of disinflation to be achieved.
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