Inflation declines but health and education expenses at a year's high

Health inflation jumped to an 11-month high in March

India’s retail inflation slowed to a 67-month low of 3.34 percent in March but health and education continue to burn a hole in household budgets, a Moneycontrol analysis has found.

Data released on April 15 showed that health inflation rose to an 11-month high of 4.26 percent in March from 4.12 percent in the previous month, as services such as X-Ray and ECG rose to a 15-month high of 2.23 percent.

Doctor consultations were 3.51 percent pricier in March from the previous year, reaching a 14-month high.

Spectacles, too, cost more, with inflation in the category at a nine-month high of 1.54 percent.

Education inflation was at a 10-month high of 3.98 percent in March from 3.83 percent in the previous month.

Tuition and school fee expenses rose 4.7 percent in March, a 12-month high, as the new academic session got underway.

Analysis shows that it was not just health and education that kept prices up. Fruit inflation rose to 16.3 percent in March from 14.8 percent in the previous month, while oils and fat prices were up 17.1 percent.

Fruit inflation has stayed in double digits for three consecutive months, while oil and fats have witnessed over 10 percent rise since November.

While sequentially prices were down 0.3 percent across categories, only 70 items witnessed a deflation in March compared with 73 in the previous month.

A quarter of goods have witnessed prices fall in March. Nearly a tenth of the items saw a price rice of over 1 percent from February.

The primary driver of India’s inflation was food, which declined to a 40-month low of 2.7 percent in March. Services inflation rose to 3.84 percent from 3.74 percent in the previous month.

Core inflation rose to 4.6 percent from 4.4 percent in the previous month.