New Delhi, Sept. 17 -- Earlier this week, estimates of inflation for August based on the consumer price index (CPI) and wholesale price index (WPI) were released. Both indices showed a rise in overall inflation driven by food prices, a trend which has been building up for quite some time now.

CPI inflation accelerated from 2.7% in January to 4.8% in August while WPI inflation accelerated from 1.2% to 9.9% during that period. However, retail food inflation accelerated faster from 2.1% to almost 6%, with faster price increases in rural areas.

This was also true for WPI, which showed food inflation swinging sharply from -0.4% to 7%. In both cases, food inflation has exceeded the overall inflation pace. The rise in inflation is not surprisi...