Government measures helped cap food inflation: Economists

Economists opine that steps taken by the central government including release of stock, selective curbs on exports and increase in imports helped cap food inflation, in addition to the policy cut measures taken by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), reported Economic Times. With a view to absorb the commodity supply shock, the government increased food subsidy by Rs.1.3 trillion from the budget estimate of Rs.2.1 trillion and distributed a total of 20.2 million tonnes of rice and 12.2 million tonnes of wheat since March 2022 under the public distribution system at subsidised prices. Also, the fertiliser subsidy helped contain food inflation by partly arresting pass-through of farm input costs to food inflation.