With Telangana, West Bengal (8.06%) and Sikkim (8.01%), the reported rate is much higher than the country’s 6.8%
With Telangana, West Bengal (8.06%) and Sikkim (8.01%), the reported rate is much higher than the country’s 6.8%
India’s retail inflation has been a major deterrent to the economy since rising over 6% in January, but there are wide disparities in the pace of increase in prices experienced by consumers across the country, 6% across a dozen states. Average inflation of less than Rs. And the other 12 states have so far averaged over 7% till 2022.
While headline inflation as measured by the Consumer Price Index averaged 6.8% in the first seven months of 2022, well above the 6% upper tolerance limit set by policymakers, retail in states such as Kerala (4.8%), Tamil Nadu (5.01%) value. ), Punjab (5.35%), Delhi (5.56%), and Karnataka (5.84%) are growing at less than 6%. Smaller states like Manipur, Goa and Meghalaya have average inflation below 4% during this period, which is 1.07%, 3.66% and 3.84% respectively.
Along with the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir, 14 states have seen price increases above the national average by 2022, with two of these states witnessing inflation in excess of 7%. Consumers in Telangana, West Bengal and Sikkim faced the sharpest jump in prices, with their combined retail inflation for rural and urban areas at 8.32%, 8.06% and 8.01%, respectively.
Some other major states where inflation has risen sharply include Maharashtra and Haryana (7.7%), Madhya Pradesh (7.52%), Assam (7.37%), Uttar Pradesh (7.27%), Gujarat and Jammu and Kashmir (7.2%) Huh. Rajasthan (7.1%).
Madan Sabnavis, Chief Economist, Bank of Baroda said, “The variation in inflation rates across states is mainly due to two factors.” “One is food prices, where there is high inflation in non-producing states as transportation prices add up. The second is that some states reduced fuel prices, while others did not, which also made a difference.
In addition, states that have more rural areas than urban areas face higher inflation because the rural segment of the Consumer Price Index has a higher weightage for food costs, Mr. Sabnavis pointed out.
Arunachal Pradesh, for which only one Rural Consumer Price Index is calculated by the National Statistics Office, has an average inflation rate of 7.3% this year, reaching 9.2% in April, when retail inflation for the country reached a 95-month high. The level was reached at 7.79. ,
In Andhra Pradesh and Jharkhand, consumers have faced inflation of 6.9% so far in 2022, slightly higher than the national inflation average of 6.8%. Price increases in Bihar (6.07%), Chhattisgarh (6.4%), Uttarakhand (6.5%) and Odisha (6.6%) have been below the national average but above the central bank’s tolerance limit for inflation.
After the government cut central taxes on these products twice in November 2021 and May 2022, members of the Center and the BJP for failing to cut state duty on petroleum products amid high global prices to provide relief to consumers has often reprimanded the opposition states.
Earlier this month, during the debate on price hike in the Monsoon Session of Parliament, BJP MP Radha Mohan Das Agarwal had read the retail inflation data of some states for the month of June and argued that inflation is low in all BJP states. Inflation is very high in all non-BJP ruled states.
Consumer price inflation for all states and union territories has been compiled by? HinduHowever, several major BJP-ruled states, including Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh and poll-polling Gujarat, as well as opposition-ruled states such as West Bengal, Telangana and West Bengal, show an average price of over 7% over 2022. Rajasthan Rajasthan
The argument that inflation is higher only in opposition-ruled states does not tolerate, with some of them experiencing inflation below the national average as well as the 6% tolerance limit.
Among the union territories, Dadra Nagar and Haveli has recorded the highest inflation at 7.74% till 2022, followed by Andaman and Nicobar Islands at 7.16%.
Puducherry, Daman & Diu and Chandigarh had relatively lower price increases, averaging 5.9%, 6.1% and 6.6%, respectively.
While Lakshadweep has the lowest average inflation among union territories till 2022 at 5.59%, retail prices have seen an alarming rise in recent months, with prices rising by 7.9%, 9.8% and 9.2% in the months of May, June and July. Has been. , respectively.
While India’s overall retail inflation slipped to a four-month low of 6.7% in July, some northeastern states, where price hikes were relatively low till June, registered a sharp jump during the month.
Nagaland and Tripura, where inflation averaged below 5.6% and 4.8% between January and June 2022, increased retail prices by 7% and 7.73%, respectively. For consumers in Mizoram, where inflation had already exceeded 7% since February, prices increased by 9.43% in July.
Telangana recorded the highest inflation in a month so far this year at 10.05% in June, but has come down to a four-month low of 8.6% in July.