Rice, wheat push up inflation, but South bucks the trend

Rice, wheat push up inflation, but South bucks the trend

#GS-03 Agriculture, Inflation

For Mains

Inflation in India:

  • India’s retail inflation reached to 7% in August 2022.
  • A major factor behind this uptick was a reversal in retail food inflation which declined to 6.7% in July but went up again to 7.6% in August.
  • Rising cereal prices created a surge in food inflation which reached 9.5% in August — the highest since February 2014.
  • However, Southern States bucked the trend and recorded very low levels of food inflation in August.
  • Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala and Karnataka which registered food inflation of less than 5% were at the bottom of the list when major States were compared for retail food inflation.
  • Telangana at 6% also registered food inflation lower than the national average.
  • Gujarat (11.5%) and Rajasthan (10.4%) were at the top of the list when major States were compared for retail food inflation.