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India did fairly well on the food inflation front in 2010, as per the Economic Survey tabled in Parliament today, recording a lower rate of price rise in essential items than other major emerging economies of the world, barring the Philippines.
India’s food inflation was the second lowest among all emerging economies in the 2010 calendar year and the country also witnessed one of the steepest declines in overall inflation, the Survey said.
It said the country’s average food inflation in November 2010 stood at 5.4 per cent, far lower than 15.8 per cent in Argentina, 9.2 per cent in Brazil and 11.7 per cent in China, as per data on 15 emerging nations from the International Labour Organisation for the month.
The Philippines recorded a food inflation of 3.2 per cent in September, the month for which its data was considered.
Citing data from the International Labour Organisation, the Survey said that while the headline inflation showed a rise in other emerging economies, the overall rate of price rise went down in India.
This was more so in the case of food inflation, where India was among the handful of emerging economies to have witnessed an easing in the rate of price rise.
Giving example from individual months taken at random, it showed that the overall inflation in India was 8.3 per cent in November against 13.5 per cent in the same month of 2009.
During the same month, China’s inflation soared to 5.1 per cent from 0.6 per cent in November, 2009, and it went up to 11 per cent in Argentina from 7.1 per cent a year-ago. In the case of Brazil, the inflation stood at 5.9 per cent in December against 4.3 per cent in the same month of 2009.
In contrast, India’s food inflation stood at 5.4 per cent in November 2010 against 17.6 per cent in the year-ago period. Other major emerging economies, including Argentina, Brazil, China, Egypt, Iran, Pakistan, Uruguay, Ukraine and Indonesia saw the prices of food products spiralling upward at a much higher rate.
The Survey also blamed currency competition for creating inflationary pressure in the emerging economies.
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