-Down to Earth The record-breaking vegetable price rise indicates an era of high food inflation in coming years Rising prices of food items, particularly that of vegetables, have spiked retail inflation to a 68-month high of 7.59 per cent in January 2020, according to the National Statistical Office. While the inflation figure captured headlines, a crucial analysis of the reasons behind this sustained increase in food prices slipped public attention. Extreme weather events...

-The Indian Express Turnaround in farm prices is the only good news in today’s overall dismal economic environment. The Narendra Modi government’s first term (June 2014 to May 2019) was marked by benign consumer food price inflation. At a mere 3.3% year-on-year, it averaged below even the 4.3% for overall retail inflation. Politically, the ruling party benefited, given that there are far more consumers of milk in India than dairy farmers. The...

-Moneycontrol.com Since the general elections, the agriculture sector has taken a back seat as the economy has itself touched new lows Since public memory is short, there is every likelihood that food inflation of 14.12 per cent in December 2019 will obfuscate the last four year’s history of low prices of food items. Vocal sections of urban India would do well to remember that in January 2017, May to August 2017 and...

-Livemint.com The government’s inordinately large food stockpiles have resulted in an artificial market scarcity On 7 January, the ministry of statistics released India’s advance estimates of national income for 2019-20, pegging the economy’s growth rate this financial year at 5%. Based on data available for the first two quarters, this seems an overestimate. Most indicators suggest that actual growth may be lower than 5%. This is bad news, especially since there is...

-The Hindu Why is the scenario of rising prices and falling growth a cause for worry? Can the government or the Reserve Bank of India do anything? The story so far: The rise in retail price inflation to a nearly six-year high of 7.35% in December has led to increasing worries that the Indian economy may be headed towards stagflation. The current rise in retail inflation has been attributed mainly to the...