As the Russia – Ukraine war continues, supply chains (the system to take things from one place to another) all over the world suffer. This, and other factors, have made every day use items more expensive (one of the meanings of the word dear, is more expensive).
Consumer Price Index ( CPI) is an indicator of how expensive items of every day use for people are.
CPI numbers for India and USA were released this week for April 2022.
In India, the inflation was calculated at 7.79% (compared to 6.95% in March 2022) , but the Food inflation was at 8.38% (it was 7.68% in March 2022).
Food inflation was higher in rural areas (8.5% in April 2022, was 8.04% in March 2022) than in urban areas (8.09% in April 2022, compared to 7.04% in March 2022).
In plainspeak, this means that while the prices of most things we use at home are rising, the prices of food products are rising faster than the rest.
Within food items, the products whose prices rose the most were, not surprisingly, cooking oils and fats, fruits, and spices. The prices of only two products fell marginally.
In USA
In the US, things were not much better. The Wholesale Price Index was at 11% in April 2022 (down from 11.2% in March 2022), while the Consumer Price Index was at 8.3%, compared to 8.5% in March 2022.