Inflation in nearly half of major states outgrows India's Oct CPI; price pressure steepest in Chhattisgarh

While India's headline retail inflation slipped out of the central bank’s outer tolerance band and scaled a 14-month high of 6.21 percent in October, the price pressure seemed steeper on some of the major states.

The inflation rate in 10 out of 22 states outgrew the national average for October, with Chhattisgarh topping the list at a whopping 8.84 percent. Bihar, with an inflation rate of 7.83 percent, claimed the third spot, followed by Odisha at 7.51 percent. With an inflation rate of 7.36 percent and 7.03 percent, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh came fourth and fifth.

Inflation has been higher in village areas in most of these states, compared to that in their urban patches, with Uttarakhand and Gujarat making exceptions. In Chhattisgarh, for example, rural inflation last month was at significantly high of 9.70 percent as against 7.42 percent in urban areas of the state.

This is in line with the trend seen across the country, as the overall urban inflation trended lower at 5.62 percent last month, but rural inflation shot off to 6.68 percent.