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What is Driving India’s Food Inflation? A Survey of Recent Evidence

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  • Jayatilleke S. Bandara

Abstract

In recent years there has been a great deal of interest in soaring food prices in India, as evidenced by wide discussions on causes of food inflation and its influence on near double-digit overall inflation in 2010 and 2011. This article examines the mix of drivers behind food price inflation through surveying recent evidence. Using this approach, this article demonstrates that the increase in demand for protein and vitamin-based high value food items has been the main driver of recent food inflation although supply shocks and institutional factors are important determinants of food inflation. These findings draw on the idea, as indicated by policy analysts, that finding proper policy response to rising food prices, mainly driven by increasing demand, will be a major challenge in India.

Suggested Citation

  • Jayatilleke S. Bandara, 2013. "What is Driving India’s Food Inflation? A Survey of Recent Evidence," South Asia Economic Journal, Institute of Policy Studies of Sri Lanka, vol. 14(1), pages 127-156, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:soueco:v:14:y:2013:i:1:p:127-156
    DOI: 10.1177/1391561413477944
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    Cited by:

    1. Thangzason Sonna & Himanshu Joshi & Alice Sebastin & Upasana Sharma, 2014. "Analytics of Food Inflation in India," Working Papers id:6174, eSocialSciences.
    2. Anand, Mukesh Kumar, 2016. "Reforming fossil fuel prices in India: Dilemma of a developing economy," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 92(C), pages 139-150.
    3. Wusheng Yu & Jayatilleke Bandara, 2017. "India's Grain Security Policy in the Era of High Food Prices: A Computable General Equilibrium Analysis," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 40(8), pages 1547-1568, August.
    4. Akash Malhotra, 2018. "A hybrid econometric-machine learning approach for relative importance analysis: Prioritizing food policy," Papers 1806.04517, arXiv.org, revised Aug 2020.
    5. Bhattacharya, Rudrani & Chowdhury, Sabarni, 2021. "How effective is e-NAM in integrating food commodity prices in India? Evidence from Onion Market," Working Papers 21/336, National Institute of Public Finance and Policy.
    6. Rudrani Bhattacharya & Abhijit Sen Gupta, 2015. "Food Inflation in India: Causes and Consequences," Working Papers id:7141, eSocialSciences.
    7. Patrick Blagrave, 2020. "Inflation co-movement in emerging and developing Asia: the monsoon effect," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 27(15), pages 1277-1283, September.
    8. Rudrani Bhattacharya & Abhijit Sen Gupta, 2017. "What Role Did Rising Demand Play in Driving Food Prices Up?," South Asian Journal of Macroeconomics and Public Finance, , vol. 6(1), pages 59-81, June.
    9. Bhattacharya, Rudrani, 2016. "How does Supply Chain Distortion affect Food Inflation in India?," Working Papers 16/173, National Institute of Public Finance and Policy.
    10. Asharani Samal & Phanindra Goyari, 2022. "Does Monetary Policy Stabilise Food Inflation in India? Evidence From Quantile Regression Analysis," Australian Economic Review, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research, vol. 55(3), pages 361-372, September.
    11. Rudrani Bhattacharya & Abhijit Sen Gupta, 2018. "Drivers and impact of food inflation in India," Macroeconomics and Finance in Emerging Market Economies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 11(2), pages 146-168, May.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Food inflation; India; supply shocks; demand drivers;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D12 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Consumer Economics: Empirical Analysis
    • F30 - International Economics - - International Finance - - - General

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