Food prices push India's retail inflation higher in August

A rise in food prices pushed India's annual retail inflation higher in August, official data showed on Tuesday.

According to the data furnished by the Ministry of Statistics & Programme Implementation, August's consumer price index (CPI) inflation shot-up a full one percentage point to 3.36 per cent from a rise of 2.36 per cent in July.

On a sequential basis, the country's Consumer Food Price Index (CFPI) rose to 1.52 per cent during the month under review when compared to July 2017.

However, on a year-on-year (YoY) basis, the country's August retail inflation was lower than the 5.05 per cent CPI rate reported for the corresponding month of last year.

The YoY CPI in urban areas ruled higher at 3.35 per cent, whereas in rural India it rose by 3.30 per cent.

As per the ministry's data, retail inflation on a YoY basis edged higher due to a rise in the prices of food items like vegetables, cereals, milk-based products, meat and fish.

The data on a YoY basis showed that vegetables in August became costly by 6.16 per cent, while cereals prices rose by 3.87 per cent.

Other notable categories such as milk-based products became dearer by 3.58 per cent and meat and fish recorded a rise of 2.94 per cent.

Food and beverages during the month under consideration recorded a rise of 1.96 per cent over the same month last year.

Among non-food categories, the "fuel and light" segment's inflation rate accelerated to 4.94 per cent in August.

--IANS

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