Monsoon progress: Excess rains this month likely to spoil the party

The southwest monsoon has entered its last month but in all indications, the withdrawal won’t start early as fresh weather systems are building along both the west and east coast of India. Heavy rainfall is also predicted all along the foothills of the Himalayas.

The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has predicted ‘above normal’ rains in September, which could be bad for the standing kharif crops, particularly those that were sown early and have entered their harvesting stage.

 

The good news amid all this is that food prices have moderated in July from their elevated levels in the last few months. According to a Bank of Baroda Essential Commodity Index, food prices have moderated both sequentially and year-on-year in July.