THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Keralites paid higher prices for commodities and services for the second consecutive month in December. Retail inflation based on Consumer Price Index (CPI) was 5.92% in Kerala while the national figure was 5.72%, as per the data released by the National Statistical Office (NSO).
Kerala’s retail inflation in December was up by .02 pc when compared to November, contradictory to the declining trend in the national average. India’s CPI had eased from 5.88% in November to 5.72% in December.
Price rise in Kerala was below the national average until October last year. In 2022, the country’s inflation rate ranged between 5.88% (November) and 7.79% (April) while Kerala’s lowest and highest figures were 3.92% (February) and 6.45% (September).
In December, higher prices for fuels like LPG and kerosene and food items pushed Kerala’s inflation rate higher than the country’s figure. The NSO calculates the inflation rate based on the prices of six baskets or groups of goods and services. They are ‘food and beverages’, ‘pan, tobacco and intoxicants’, ‘clothing and footwear’, ‘housing’, ‘fuel and light’ and ‘miscellaneous’.
The ‘fuel and light’ basket consists of energy products like LPG, kerosene and electricity. Kerala’s Consumer Price Index for this basket was 204.8 in December while India’s figure was 182.1. The indices for the ‘food and beverages’ basket were 187.8 and 175.9 for Kerala and India respectively. Kerala’s CPI for ‘housing’ basket based on rental prices was 7.9 points higher than the national figure.
The CPI for ‘pan, tobacco and intoxicants’ basket was up by 7.1 points and ‘miscellaneous’ basket 3.8 points higher. The only basket that went in Kerala’s favour was ‘clothing and footwear’ that declined by 12.4 points when compared to the whole of the country. The data showed that inflation was higher in Kerala’s rural areas than urban settings. The combined CPI for rural areas was 183.1 as against 181 in urban areas.