Punjab, Sept. 15 -- Retail inflation rose to 4.82% in August from 4.45% in July - the highest reading since December 2024. The move was widely expected. What is inside it is less widely discussed.
Onions, ginger and garlic
Food inflation climbed to 5.95%. Onion prices rose 48.27% year on year, ginger 73.82% and garlic 43.6%.
Those three are a small share of the basket and an outsized share of how inflation feels. They are bought weekly, in small quantities, by nearly every household, which makes them the prices people actually notice. A 48% move in onions does more to household sentiment than the same move in an item bought twice a year.
They are also, historically, the fastest to reverse. Vegetable price spikes in India are usually sup...