Kashmir Valley ‘Most expensive’, As retail inflation touches 8.61% in November

Against the national retail inflation of 4.88 percent, the cost of living in Jammu and Kashmir has almost doubled as average prices have recorded year-on-year increase of 8.61 percent for the month of November, according to recently released consumer price index (CPI).
The CPI figures released by the ministry of statistics and programme implementation (MOSPI) reveal that J&K has emerged as one of the most expensive states in the country due to high inflation rate.
J&K has recorded inflation of 8.61 percent for November, followed by Kerala with 8.1 percent, Tamil Nadu (7.56 percent) Andhra Pradesh (5.79 percent), and Assam (5.8 percent) as per the November CPI figures.
The least expensive, states in November were Rajasthan (3.96 percent), Gujarat (3.47 percent), Odisha (3.47 percent), Bihar (3.35 percent) and Uttar Pradesh (3.21 percent).
However, the all-India inflation hit a 15-month high of 4.88 percent in November due to costlier fuel, vegetables and eggs, as per the data released by the MOSPI.
The all-India inflation, based on Consumer Price Index (CPI), was at 3.58 percent in October. A year ago, in November 2016, it was 3.63 percent. The previous high was recorded at 5.05 percent in August last year.
Inflation in protein rich eggs shot to 7.95 percent in November on annual basis, as against 0.69 per cent in the previous month.
In the fuel and light segment, it was 7.92 percent, as against 6.36 in October. For vegetables it was 22.48 per cent in November. The inflation in the segment was a only 7.47 per cent in October.
Data reveals that onion, witnessed a whopping 178.19 percent rise in inflation in October.
For seasonal vegetables too the rate of price rise accelerated to 59.80 percent, as against 36.61 percent in the same month.
Last week, the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) forecasted that retail inflation will hover around the range 4.3 to 4.7 percent in quarter ended December and March, higher than the previous projection of 4.2-4.6 percent.