Statsguru: From India to US, six charts show rising global inflation

Data released by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation last week showed that consumer prices in India jumped 7 per cent in March compared to the previous year. However, India is not the only country facing high levels of inflation. In the US, consumer price inflation has been higher than in India for the last seven months. The reading for March was 8.5 per cent.

Not just the US, even the EU had a higher reading of 7.5 per cent (chart 1). Data shows that producer prices in all these countries/regions are also rising rapidly. Compared to the wholesale price index-based inflation rate of 13.1 per cent in India, the EU’s producer price index-based inflation was 30.6 per cent, whereas the UK had a PPI inflation reading of 11.8 per cent (chart 2).

Further analysis reveals that food and beverages were contributing to higher prices in India. While fuel prices were still high, they had declined over the last few months (chart 3). In contrast, food and energy prices were rising in the US. Energy inflation in the country was 32 per cent in March, its highest level in 12 months; food prices were also at a 12-month high (chart 4). The UK was in a similar situation. The food price inflation in the country was lower than in the US, but energy inflation was in double digits. In March, energy prices were 24.8 per cent higher than last year (chart 5).

 A comparison of product baskets across countries shows that India gives 54.2 per cent weightage to food, relative to other commodities, while the UK and the US baskets have a share of 13.4 and 9.2 per cent, respectively. Energy weightage in India is lower compared to the US (chart 6). While the central banks of the US and the UK have started raising interest rates, the Reserve Bank of India’s Monetary Policy Committee left the policy rate unchanged in its first meeting of the fiscal year.

StatsGuru is a weekly feature. Every Monday, Business Standard guides you through the numbers you need to know to make sense of the headlines