Here’s why the morning hot cuppa and the platter got costlier

That’s not all.

The staple platter at most households have also become expensive. This is because edible or cooking oil, the common medium to rustle up most Indian curries, have jumped sharply over the last one year.

Sample this.

Price Rise

A litre of groundnut oil, on an average in India, now costs Rs 181.78, higher by 15.4 percent than Rs 157.57 last year.

Mustard oil has become even dearer. Its price has gone up by 35.5 percent over a one year period — to Rs 187.03 a litre on an average from Rs 138.04 last year.

Prices of vanaspati or vegetable oil have gone up similarly, by 35 percent to Rs 138.54 a litre now from Rs 102.64 a litre last year.

During this period the prices of soya oil (Rs 150.28 a litre now from Rs 112.05 last year), sunflower oil (Rs 164.26 a litre now from Rs 128.63 last year) and palm oil (Rs 130.33 a litre now from Rs 105.02 last year) grew by 34.1 percent, 27.7 percent and 24.1 percent respectively.

It is not just edible oil that has made the daily platter costlier. There’s another key ingredient that is commonly used in most Indian dishes — tomato — that has seen its prices rise sharply. Tomatoes are now selling at an average of Rs 54.55 a kilogram, up 45 percent from last year’s Rs 37.64.

Steeper Spike

All these and other wallet pinchers are showing up in official statistics too.

Retail inflation, as measured by the Consumer Price Index (CPI), increased for the second consecutive month in November to 4.91 percent from 4.48 percent in October, despite the central and several state governments reducing fuel taxes early in the month.

The headline retail inflation number, although within the Reserve Bank of India (RBI)’s tolerable range of 2-6 percent, could well be masking a steeper spike in cost of living.

Over the last one year, getting by has got even harder than what the official retail inflation rate suggests.

The low headline inflation number is because of a favourable base effect from high inflation in November 2020.

Core inflation — that excluding the food and fuel and light groups — remained sticky at above the 6 percent mark. It stood at 6.19 percent in November, marginally lower than 6.24 percent in October.

Non-core inflation increased to 3.39 percent in November from 2.63 percent in the previous month, primarily driven by food inflation, mainly cereals and vegetables.

The CPI-based inflation, which is a gauge to measure changes in shop-end prices, has stubbornly remained above the 4 percent mark for the most part since January.

Wholesale price index (WPI)-based inflation also galloped to a record high of 14.23 percent in November, although part of it may have been driven by a low base effect.

Wholesale inflation, which is a kind of the Indian version of a producers’ price index, was 2.2 percent in November 2020, partly magnifying the costliness of products on an annualised basis.

The government has said that the high rate of inflation in November 2021 is primarily due to rise in prices of mineral oils, basic metals, crude petroleum, natural gas, chemical, and food products.

Crude oil prices are currently hovering around $75 a barrel, with all eyes on the spread of Omicron, COVID-19’s new variant of concern.

If crude prices harden, it could have a cascading effect, negating the fuel tax cut gains that lowered petrol and diesel prices. Costlier transport fuel could make most other goods dearer as the cost of ferrying products across the country becomes expensive.