Inflation

According to the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, the nationwide core consumer price index, excluding volatile fresh food items, exceeded the Bank of Japan's 2 per cent target for the sixth straight month. This was due to the Japanese yen's drop to 32-year lows against the dollar, pushing up import costs in the reporting period, Xinhua news agency reported, citing the ministry's data.

Out of the world's 25,490 centi-millionaires, India has 1,132, beating countries like the UK, Russia and Switzerland, in a swift growing and powerful class of super-rich tech titans, financiers, multinational CEOs, and heirs.

Statistics Austria said on Wednesday that the September inflation rate was 1.2 percentage points above that registered in August and exceeded the high inflation levels "during the oil crisis in the 1970s", reports Xinhua news agency.

The currency fell to a record low of 82.95 after the US dollar strengthened against all major currencies globally. the dollar's ascent has been triggered by inflation in the UK hitting a 40-year high level last month, owing to rising food prices.

These observations have been made in the central bank's monthly bulletin for the month of October. In the article on the state of economy published in the bulletin, the central bank said that "these factors will entrench India's prospects as one of the fastest growing economies of the world".

Addressing a news conference on Friday at the end of her visit for the annual meetings of the World Bank group, which were accompanied by 24 bilateral meetings, the finance minister also gave a broad overview of India's priorities for its upcoming year-long rotational presidency of the G-20 group of countries -- essentially, focusing on bilateral development banks, climate finance and cryptocurrency.

In September 2021, it had stood at 11.80 per cent. According to the data released by the Commerce Ministry, wholesale food inflation fell to 8.08 per cent in September from 9.93 per cent in August. Inflation for manufactured products slid to 6.34 per cent in September from 7.51 per cent in August.

Electricity prices have increased by 54.2 per cent, and food and non-alcoholic beverages by 16.1 per cent over the past 12 months, Xinhua news agency reported. Prices also increased for repair and maintenance of dwellings, furnishing and household equipment, restaurant visits, accommodation services as well as miscellaneous goods and services. According to analysts, the fight against soaring inflation is far from over.

"Governments confront difficult trade-offs amid sharp increases in food and energy prices," Xinhua news agency quoted Vitor Gaspar, director of the IMF's fiscal affairs department, as saying in a statement on Wednesday. Policymakers must protect low-income families from large real income losses and ensure their access to food and energy, the blog noted.

Price pressure on import of crude oil shall have a cascading impact on other items of the basket too. Additionally, factors such as transmission of input costs and pick-up in consumer demand supported by service sector recovery would further add to inflationary risk in the coming months, Rathi added.