Food inflation: cost of thali marginally down in August

A drop in the prices of tomato in the last week of August has paved the way for a marginal reduction in the prices of vegetarian and non-vegetarian thalis which is increasingly being regarded as a popular and crude proxy for food inflation.

Official data on retail inflation for August will be released on September 12.

A Crisil report has stated that the price of vegetarian thali marginally declined to Rs 33.80 in August from Rs 34 the previous month. On the other hand, the price of a non-vegetarian thali crawled down by 30 paise to reach Rs 67.30 in the same month.

“Of the 24% rise (year-on-year) in the vegetarian thali cost, 21% can be attributed solely to the price of tomato, which rose 176% on-year to Rs 102/kg in August…,” Crisil said in the report released on September 8.

The thali prices clearly indicate that there was little respite from the bite of inflation in August. A poll by economists has already indicated that retail inflation is likely to remain above the 7% mark in August. Riding the zooming prices of food items, retail inflation reached 7.44% in July, shocking policymakers and taking the figure far beyond the Reserve Bank of India’s upper band of comfort level of 6%. The retail inflation figure for July was also the highest in the past 15 months.

While the common man continues to reel under the impact of inflation, policymakers have been uttering words of comfort, projecting that there may be some respite in September. Tomato prices have dipped. To provide some relief to the kitchen managers, the government has slashed the prices of LPG cylinders by Rs 200 ahead of the general elections next year.

The thali is an approximation of a typical Indian-style meal comprising various items. A vegetarian thali usually consists of roti, vegetables (onion, tomato, and potato), rice, dal, curd and salad. In a non-veg thali, the constituents remain the same and the dal is replaced by chicken.

Crisil said the average cost of preparing a thali at home is calculated based on input prices prevailing in north, south, east and west India. The monthly change in prices reflects the impact on the expenditure of the common man.

(ENDS)