After decelerating for three consecutive months, India’s retail inflation accelerated 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. In turn, the surge in food inflation was due to rising cereal prices which quickened to 9.5% in August — the highest since February 2014.
While overall food inflation was high, wide variations were observed across major States. Particularly, the Southern States bucked the trend and recorded very low levels of food inflation in August. Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala and Karnataka were at the bottom of the list when major States were compared for retail food inflation. The August food inflation in these four States was 5% or less. Food inflation was lower than the national average in Telangana (6%) too.
In contrast, the western States of Gujarat (11.5%) and Rajasthan (10.4%) were at the top of the list with retail food inflation of over 10% in August. The other States which had food inflation higher than the national average include West Bengal (10.3%), Uttar Pradesh (9.2%), Maharashtra, and Uttarakhand (8.5%).
