Inflation, once thought to be tamed and controlled by the steady hand of central banks, is staging a comeback, and it is not a quiet one. The era of low inflation, marked by decades of economic stability, seems like a distant memory as we grapple with the resurgence of price pressures.
Amidst mixed signals from global peers, investor sentiment remained volatile, influenced by uncertainties surrounding pivotal policy decisions from major central banks, says Vinod Nair, Head of Research, Geojit Financial Services.
This is the third consecutive month of decline in the annual rate of WPI inflation, which had stood at 0.73 per cent in December.
The preference change is despite the fact that 55 per cent of Indians continued to believe their disposable income had been majorly impacted by inflation.
India’s wholesale inflation stood at 0.27 per cent in January, better than 0.73 per cent in the previous month, official data released on Wednesday showed.
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) projected the retail inflation falling to below 5 per cent on considerable certainty on the food price outlook and some softening in the growth of input costs.
Congress MP Manish Tewari said, "It is a 'vote-on-account' budget which has only one purpose to keep the government solvent for the first quarter of the current fiscal year."
The annual rate of inflation based on the all India Wholesale Price Index (WPI) for December rose to 0.73 per cent, a nine-month high, according to government data on Monday.
The recent surge in inflation, charac- terised by supply chain disruptions, pent-up demand, and geopolitical events, prompts us to re-evaluate con- ventional wisdom on inflation management.
According to MoSPI data, the highest inflation was recorded in the food and beverages category at 8.70 per cent.
