The 10-day snapshot could reflect the trend in consumer price index (CPI), a main gauge of inflation, as food prices account for nearly one-third of the prices used in calculating the index, Xinhua news agency reported.
Prices of pork, beef and mutton posted decline from last sampled period of March 11 to March 20, according to data released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).
Cucumber led the fall in vegetable prices by losing 6.4 per cent, while canola and soybean oil prices dipped by 0.4 per cent.
Weakening food prices were expected to drag down the March CPI, which is was expected to grow by about 0.8 per cent year on year, according to an earlier report by the Bank of Communications.
The official CPI in March is due to be released by the NBS on April 12.
However, the Consumer Price Index (CPI) in August was lower than the corresponding month of the last year when retail inflation stood at 3.69 per cent.
According to the data furnished by the National Statistical Office (NSO), the Consumer Food Price Index (CFPI) widened to 2.99 per cent in August from an expansion of 2.36 per cent in July and 0.29 per cent in August 2018.
Product-wise, prices of pulses, vegetables, eggs, meat and fish pushed the retail food inflation higher on a year-on-year (YoY) basis. In contrast, decline in the prices of sugar capped the overall food inflation.
Accordingly, the prices of pulses and its products increased by 6.94 per cent, vegetables by 6.90 per cent and meat and fish by 8.51 per cent.
On the other hand, prices of sugar and confectionery declined by 2.35 per cent.
The sub-category of food and beverages recorded a 2.96 per cent rise last month over August 2018. Among the non-food categories, the fuel and light segment's inflation decreased by 1.70 per cent in August 2019.
"The annual rate of inflation, based on monthly Wholesale Price Index (WPI), stood at (-) 3.21 per cent (provisional) for May 2020 as compared to 2.79 per cent during the corresponding month of the previous year," the commerce and industry ministry said in a statement.
Inflation in food articles during May stood at 1.13 per cent, as against 2.55 per cent in April. In fuel and power basket, deflation stood at 19.83 per cent in May, as against 10.12 per cent in the previous month.
Manufactured products witnessed deflation of 0.42 per cent in May.
Due to the nationwide lockdown imposed since March 25, the ministry had released truncated WPI inflation data for April, with figures of food, primary articles and fuel and power.
However, it has advised its field offices to collect price data through electronic means and the final index for the month would be released next month.
"Price data is collected from selected institutional sources and industrial establishments spread across the country online through web-based portal maintained by the National Informatics Centre (NIC)," the ministry said.
The final print of March WPI inflation stood at 0.42 per cent as compared to its provisional levels of 1 per cent reported on April 14, 2020, the ministry said.
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On a year-on-year (YoY) basis, the CPI inflation more than doubled last month from 3.15 per cent recorded during July 2019.
The data furnished by the National Statistical Office (NSO) showed that India's consumer food price index during the month under review rose to 9.62 per cent from 8.72 per cent reported for June 2020.
CFPI readings measure the changes in retail prices of food products.
"As the various pandemic-related restrictions were gradually lifted and non- essential activities started resuming operations, availability of price data has also improved," the NSO said.
"The NSO collected prices from 1,054 (95 per cent) urban markets and 1,089 (92 per cent) villages during the month of July 2020," it said.
The data showed that CPI Urban rose to 6.84 per cent in July from 6.12 per cent in June. The CPI rural increased to 7.04 per cent last month from 6.34 per cent in June.
The data assumes significance as the Reserve Bank of India, in its recent monetary policy review, maintaining the key lending rates on account of rising retail inflation.
The central bank's target for retail inflation is set within a band of +/-2 per cent.
As per the data, the CPI YoY inflation rate for vegetables and pulses jumped by 11.29 per cent and 15.92 per cent, respectively, in July.
Furthermore, meat and fish prices rose 18.81 per cent and eggs became dearer by 8.79 per cent.
In addition, the fuel and light category under CPI rose by 2.80 per cent.
"Clearly, the larger concern is the impact of consistently high food inflation on core inflation through cost-push factors; the relatively high figure for transport and communication is a reflection of high tax-driven fuel prices and increase in telecom tariffs," said Suman Chowdhury, Chief Analytical Officer, Acuite Ratings & Research.
"We believe that inflationary concerns may lead to a delay in further rate cuts and can raise the risks of stagflation. It is also expected to have an adverse impact on bond yields in the near term and may trigger the higher use of liquidity and yield management tools to optimise the cost of government's borrowings."
According to Devendra Kumar Pant, Chief Economist and Senior Director, Public Finance, India Ratings & Research: "Both industrial production and inflation trend suggest different monetary policy action."
"Retail inflation breaching the MPC's upper band of 6 per cent in seven out of the last eight months makes task of the MPC difficult. India Ratings believes the MPC will watch inflation trajectory very carefully before taking a decision on further rate cuts."
Brickwork ratings' Chief Economic Advisor M. Govinda Rao said: "The spillovers of the hike in petrol prices are most likely to influence transportation costs adding to inflationary pressures going forward. We expect food inflation to soften in the coming months with easing supply constraints and better monsoon so far."
"However, the core inflation at 5.5 per cent is a cause of concern, and it may remain at elevated levels as the demand picks up, but capacity utilisation does not increase commensurately."
(IANS)
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