The government's claim that food inflation during 10 months of the current year (July 03 to April 04) at 4.9 percent is not substantiated by the rising trend shown in the Sensitive Price Indicators (SPI) released by the Federal Bureau of Statistics every week.
The SPI covers 53 items and all food items are included therein like wheat, rice, sugar, vegetables, pulses, ghee, beef, mutton, eggs, etc.
According to these figures, the SPI was up by over 11 percent in a year as it was on week ending June 3 against June 5, 2003.
The SPI figures about majority of food items depict a higher growth rate than 11 percent for SPI items which include cosmetics, apparel, cooked meal, transport and communication, petrol, diesel etc.
The year-to-year rise in food prices, however, in the latest weekly bulletin of the Bureau is very revealing. Onions were dearer by 59 percent; potatoes 55 percent; beef 30 percent; mutton 33.61 percent; garlic 23.61 percent; eggs 19 percent; chicken 20.90 percent; wheat 24.59 percent; wheat flour 26.57 percent; vegetable ghee loose 12.88 percent; Irri rice 16.80 percent; powdered milk 12.50 percent; fresh milk 9.13 percent; cooked beef 17.52 percent; curd 10.44 percent; and plain bread 11.83 percent.
In the presence of these official figures, the claim that food inflation has been around 4.90 percent in ten months (July to April 04) sounds more fanciful than real.
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