India’s wheat stocks plummet to 14-year low
Extreme weather devastated both the winter-sown wheat and summer-sown rice harvests, pushing up retail food prices to a 22-month high. As a result, India’s federally-owned cereal inventories, which offer subsidised grains to 80 crore people, have plummeted to a five-year low.
Wheat production was hampered by a protracted heatwave in March, and as supplies ran low in May, the government decided to outlaw exports. In order to increase domestic availability, the government also established restrictions on overseas rice shipments last month. A 20% export fee was imposed, and damaged rice was not allowed to be shipped.
India’s consumer inflation rate increased to a five-month high of 7.41% in September on an annual basis, up from 7% in August and continuing a nine-month streak of exceeding the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) target range of 4-6%.
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