India's food inflation bites harder as risks build for global supplies

Its average citizen is more affected than people in peer economies

A spectre is haunting many parts of the world and India isn’t spared: food inflation.

India’s cost of food and beverages was 6.26 per cent higher in February than the year before, pushing retail inflation up 6.44 per cent. Around 93 per cent of lower-middle income countries, including India, also reported high food inflation in excess of 5 per cent, according to a World Bank report last week, as seen in chart 1.

Cereals drive India’s food inflation, though the price of other food items like milk and milk products have also surged in recent times. Inflation for cereals