Inflation alert: On increasing rates

The last thing that India’s pandemic-hit economy needs is speeding up inflation. And, yet, that is precisely what the current information indicate. June’s retail inflation reading of 6.1%is fretting, especially because it was the very first month when the economy reopened from the debilitating lockdowns of the preceding two months. While the disruptions triggered to the supply of goods and services as an outcome of the nationwide shutdown can to an extent describe the acceleration in price gains, that this happened despite depressed need is cause for disquiet. A closer take a look at the Customer Price Index reveals that prices in the food and beverages group increased a typical 7.3%year-on-year, with the crucial protein sources of pulses and products rising 16.7%, meat and fish climbing 16.2%, and milk and its derivatives increasing 8.4%. Inflation in the food classification would have been much faster but for veggies and fruits mode