New Delhi: Food inflation reached a four-month high in April at 8.7% even as retail inflation remained virtually unchanged at 4.83% compared to March.
The impact of inflation was more on rural households that saw a 5.43% rise in prices at 8.75%, while urban consumers encountered a marginal change from 4.14% in March to 4.11% in April, the Hindu reported.
Price levels rose by 0.5% on a month-on-month basis, with urban consumers facing a sharper uptick in overall prices as well as food items, the report said. Food prices increased by 1.03% compared to March in urban India and 0.59% in their rural counterparts.
The rise in Consumer Price Index (CPI) was more pronounced for urban households that saw a spike of 0.6% over March while it was 0.37% higher for rural India.
Within the food basket, vegetables’ inflation dropped marginally from 28.3% in March to 27.8%. However, it remained in double digits for the fifth consecutive month, the report said. Pulses also reported double-digit inflation for the 11th consecutive month at 16.84% in April, marginally lower than 17.7% in March.
Cereals got more expensive by 8.63% in April compared to 8.4% in March while a sharper increase was seen in meat and fish prices that rose by 8.2% last month as compared to 6.4% the month before that. Fruits also reported higher price rise at 5.22%, from 3.1% in March, the report said.
On the edible oil front, the year-on-year decline in prices dropped to 9.4%, after a 12-month streak of over 10% deflation.
Some relief
Price rise eased for some commodities like sugar, spices, eggs and milk. The inflation rate dropped from 7.2% in March to 6% in April for sugar. The same for spices fell to 7.75% after a 22-month streak of over 10% inflation, the report said. Egg prices rose by 7.1%, compared to the 10.33% rise recorded in March.
The marginal decline in the headline inflation rate in April, despite the surge in food inflation, was due to a sharper drop in fuel and light prices, which were down 4.2% compared with a 3.2% decline in March. This was aided by slightly lower inflation in some other items like: clothing and footwear, pan, tobacco and intoxicants, housing, health, recreation and amusement.
Wholesale price inflation also rose to 1.26% in April against 0.53% in March, news agency PTI reported.