New Delhi: The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has a long-term goal of maintaining the retail inflation figure at 4 per cent. After struggling to tie it down to that level for several months, the central bank must have been happy to see the graph decelerate to 3.5 per cent — sharply down from 5.1 per cent in June 2024. However, some states continue to struggle with price rise. Check the list of states with the highest and lowest inflation recorded in July 2024.
Which states recorded highest inflation rate in July 2024?
According to data released by the National Statistical Office (NSO) on August 18, 2024, 20 of the 22 states listed recorded below 5 per cent inflation. The highest rate of consumer price index-based inflation, or retail inflation, was recorded in Bihar at 5.9 per cent. Assam recorded the second-highest inflation rate at 5.1 per cent.
State
July inflation
Bihar
5.9%
Assam
5.1%
Odisha
4.8%
Uttar Pradesh
4.6%
Haryana
4.5%
Kerala
4.5%
Which states recorded lowest inflation rate in July 2024?
The states of Jharkhand, Delhi, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan and Uttarakhand recorded the lowest inflation figures in July 2024, according to NSO data.
State
July inflation
Jharkhand
1.7%
Delhi
2.1%
Chhattisgarh
2.2%
Rajasthan
2.5%
Uttarakhand
2.5%
Why is there inflation variation among states?
Incidentally, the bite of food inflation was more acutely felt in the rural areas than in urban areas, since people in the villages spent a higher part of their income on food compared with the expenditure pattern of people based in urban areas. The latest Economic Survey stated that 47.3 per cent of the weightage of the rural consumption basket was reserved for food items. In the urban segment, food formed 29.6 per cent of the consumption basket.
“In the last 2 years, states that witnessed elevated food prices also experienced higher rural inflation. It is also found that the inter-state variation calculated through standard deviation is higher in rural than urban inflation. Besides, states with higher overall inflation also tend to exhibit a wider rural-to-urban inflation gap,” according to the Economy Survey.
States’ July retail inflation: In an ironic twist the neighbouring states of Bihar and Jharkhand registered the highest and the lowest inflation rates in July, respectively. Biz News Business News – Personal Finance News, Share Market News, BSE/NSE News, Stock Exchange News Today
