Frequent Extreme Weather Events Driving Food Inflation In India

New Delhi: The food inflation rate in India has remained firm over the past two years defying the global trend, and frequent extreme weather events are one of the reasons, the government said in its latest Economic Survey.

Tabled in Parliament, the report said that the decline in onion and tomato production over the past two years can be partly attributed to frequent extreme weather events in major producing states compared to other regions.

Extreme weather events in 2023-24 damaged crops in major horticulture-producing states, leading to inflationary pressure on horticultural commodities, it said. “Over the past two years, India’s food inflation rate has remained firm, diverging from global trends of stable or declining food inflation.

This can be attributed to factors such as supply chain disruptions exacerbated by extreme weather events and reduced harvest of some food items,” the report read.