The curious case of rising health, education inflation in rural areas

In rural areas, the inflation rate in health rose to 10.14% in December from in 4.7% January

Over the past few months, there has been a rather unusual trend in India’s inflation statistics.

While the headline retail inflation rate has fallen from 5.07 per cent in January 2018 to 2.19 per cent in December 2018, the inflation rate in both health and education sectors has been on the rise, particularly in rural areas.

Within the consumer price index (CPI), the heath index has risen from 4.9 per cent in January 2018 to 9 per cent in December 2018, while over the same period, the education index has risen from 4.2 per cent to 8.3 per cent.

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