Indian households are shelling out at least 30 per cent more for vegetables and

RELATED ARTICLES Petrol price hike to have marginal impact on inflation Rupee fall unlikely to drive up inflation risks: Credit Suisse Have to act even if inflation driven by food: RBI Inflation jump means India monetary easing hard: Rangarajan After weak IIP, markets look to inflation data for revival cues

sugar, 25 per cent more on milk and edible oils due to high double digit food inflation in last two years.

Food inflation, which has gone up to 8.31 per cent for the week ended July 2 from 7.61 per cent in the previous week, however, had a lesser impact on food grains, which had gone up by less than 20 per cent in last two years.

For tomato, the price was Rs 21.33 per kg in 2009, which went up to Rs 22.5 in 2010. In past one year the vegetable has witnessed a steep rise to touch Rs 35.5 per kg in July 2011, up by almost 66 per cent in two years.

Sugar prices also went up from Rs 24.3 in 2009 to Rs 32.4 in July this year, an increase of over 30 per cent. This increase reflects a rise in sugarcane prices, but does not reflect fully the impact of a higher production of sweetener in past two years.

Edible oil prices too were costlier by 30 per cent from what it was two years ago. Prices of two most popular varieties of edible oil were considered for this report — soya oil and mustard oil. During July 2009, soya oil prices stood at Rs 62.42 per litre and mustard oil prices were at Rs 68.56 per litre. Prices of soya and mustard oil are around Rs 80 to Rs 81 per litre, respectively, this month.

Milk prices in New Delhi have gone up by almost Rs 5 per litre in past two years, which at present is Rs 25.63 per litre. This is a rise of 25 per cent in two years, during which India’s milk production had surged.

Among pulses, prices of masoor and gram have declined due to higher production and imports. However, the prices of some pulses like moong and tur, which are imported in larger quantities to meet growing domestic demand stood 18 per cent higher than two years ago.

Despite government’s price control and availability of key food grains such as wheat and rice, their prices have also witnessed a significant rise. Retail price data for July 2011 showed the price of wheat has increased by 15.5 per cent, while rice prices were up 8.5 per cent over the past two years.

The higher retail prices came despite the government not changing issue prices of these food grains in the past eight years.