Inflation continues to haunt the general public and after reporting a hike in the wholesale price index, Consumer Price Index (CPI) for the month of September rose. The all India general CPI jumped to 9.8 per cent to 9.5 per cent in August 2013. As per the Government data, inflation in rural India rose sharply to 9.7 per cent compared to 8.9 per cent in the last month.
Of all the components of CPI, the worst hit has been the vegetable segment. In just one month's time vegetable inflation rose to 34.93 per cent as compared to 26.48 per cent. The prices for vegetables gained the most in rural India as the rate of inflation rose to 31.66 per cent. Fruits inflation also registered a quantum jump to 9.33 per cent from 5.19 per cent.
Clothing and milk product inflation also rose marginally to 9.28 per cent and 8 per cent respectively. A substantial fall was registered in egg, fish and meat segment which fell to 11.99 per cent from 13.65 per cent. Pulses also got cheaper as the inflation rate fell by almost 1 per cent to 0.69 per cent.
While the rural India's inflation rate has gone up, the rate for urban areas have gone down to 9.9 per cent from 10.3 per cent for August 2013. CPI for September for rural, urban and combined stood at 137.8, 134 and 136.2 respectively.As per the data provided by Min of Statistics & Programme Implementation (MOSPI), general CPI (combined) is highest in the state of Meghalaya at 142.7 followed by Karnataka at 140.1, Jharkhand at 138.8, West Bengal at 138.4, Tamil Nadu at 138.3 and Bihar 138.