Factory item prices must cool for lasting inflation relief
Live MintIndia’s retail inflation in June was 4.8%, as per a recent data release. Retail inflation is the year-on-year change in the consumer price index, which is a weighted average price level for food, fuel, manufacturing and service items. There is one lesson to be drawn from India’s inflation-targeting experience and especially high inflation post the covid pandemic: the prices of manufactured products hold the key to managing retail inflation. In the last three years, rising prices in the manufacturing sector not only outpaced services and the overall CPI, it has fully compensated for the slower price rise before the pandemic. Data shared by Crisil, which maintains a CPI record that separates manufacturing and services prices, shows that food, fuel, manufacturing and services have weights of 39.05%, 6.84%, 27.37% and 26.74% respectively in the CPI index.