THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Indicating a cooling down of prices,the retail inflation in Kerala eased to 4.72% in September from 6.26% in the previous month. The national average also eased down to 5.02% well within the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) tolerance band of 2-6%.
While Kerala’s retail inflation surpassed the national average from March to June this year, July marked a significant peak at 6.43%, majorly influenced by a surge in vegetable prices.
Kerala’s category-wise consumer price indices (CPI) for September reveal that the drop was due to the sequential fall in food prices. The CPI for food basket dropped from 198.1 in July to 197.2 in August and 193.5 in July.
The index for this basket is calculated on the basis of prices of 12 categories of food items like cereals, pulses, vegetables, fruits, meat, milk products etc.
The National Statistical Office (NSO) computes the inflation rate considering six baskets of goods and services, namely ‘food and beverages’, ‘pan, tobacco and intoxicants’, ‘clothing and footwear’, ‘housing’, ‘fuel and light’, and ‘miscellaneous’.
The ‘fuel and light’ basket comprises energy products such as LPG, kerosene, and electricity. Kerala’s CPI for this basket stood at 194.5 in July, slightly lower than the national figure of 206.5. The state’s index for the ‘housing’ basket, determined by urban rental prices, matched the national figure at 183.2. Similarly, the index for the ‘pan, tobacco, and intoxicants’ basket in Kerala was 210.6, slightly above the national figure of 210.5.