Statistical lies are said to be the second form of lying but that is what one has to go by. Government data dished out during the Yuletide festivities about food inflation are really cause for cheering up. It is reported to have eased sharply to 1.80 % in the week ended December 10 from the rise of 4.35 % in the corresponding week the previous year. This is largely on account of the high base-effect of the previous year. The continuing slide in vegetable and cereal prices contributed to the dip in the year-on-year food inflation rate. On a sequential basis, the food articles group index declined 0.5 % during the latest week under review. Food inflation stood at a high of 13.22 % in the corresponding week of 2010. According to official data, onion prices were down over 49 % year-on-year during the week under review. Potato prices fell by over 34 %. Wheat prices also came down to 4.2 %. Overall, vegetables were cheaper by 26.37 %. Most other food items however surged on an annual basis led by protein based items. Pulses were up over 14 %, milk by 11 %. Meat, eggs and fish rose by over 9% and so did fruits. Fuel and power inflation remained steady at 15.24 %.
These marginal ups and downs of course mean little to the common man reeling under continual soaring prices. True, petrol and diesel prices have not been increased as the government had threatened to do. That would have further pushed up food prices. But cooking gas price has gone up appreciably. The gloom in the economic scenario is hardly relieved by the report about falling food inflation. A large percentage of the population living under the poverty line is on near starvation diet. The heat and dust over the Food Security Bill seems pointless in this quarter.