What do October’s inflation data show?
- October’s inflation data point to a welcome softening in price gains that should offer some succor to monetary policy authorities, who have been battling to rein in runaway inflation since the beginning of this year.
- Retail inflation, or price gains based on the Consumer Price Index, slowed to 6.77% last month, from September’s 7.41%, aided by an appreciable deceleration in food price inflation.
- The year-on-year inflation based on the Consumer Food Price Index eased by almost 160 basis points in October, to 7.01%, from the preceding month’s 8.60%, helped by a “decline in prices of vegetables, fruits, pulses and oils and fats”, the Government said.
- With the food and beverages sub-index representing almost 46% of the CPI’s weight, the slowdown in food price gains understandably steered overall inflation lower even as price gains in three other essential categories, namely clothing and footwear, housing, and health, remained either little changed from September or quickened.
- Inflation at the wholesale prices level also continued to decelerate, with the headline reading easing into single digits for the first time in 19 months. A favorable base effect along with a distinct cooling in international prices of commodities including crude oil and steel amid gathering uncertainty in advanced economies was largely instrumental in tempering wholesale price gains.
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