Higher food prices pushed up India’s August retail inflation to 3.21 percent from 3.15 percent in July, official data showed on Thursday.
However, the Consumer Price Index (CPI) in August was lower than the corresponding month of the last year when retail inflation stood at 3.69 percent.
According to the data furnished by the National Statistical Office (NSO), the Consumer Food Price Index (CFPI) widened to 2.99 percent in August from an expansion of 2.36 percent in July and 0.29 percent in August 2018.
Product-wise, prices of pulses, vegetables, eggs, meat and fish pushed the retail food inflation higher on a year-on-year (YoY) basis. In contrast, decline in the prices of sugar capped the overall food inflation.
Accordingly, the prices of pulses and its products increased by 6.94 percent, vegetables by 6.90 percent and meat and fish by 8.51 percent.
On the other hand, prices of sugar and confectionery declined by 2.35 percent.
The sub-category of food and beverages recorded a 2.96 percent rise last month over August 2018. Among the non-food categories, the fuel and light segment’s inflation decreased by 1.70 percent in August 2019.
