Kerala has been largely immune to consumer price increase during the COVID-19 period when compared to other States.
The price increases in most products, especially food, was much lower than the all-India level. The largest gains in the consumer price front during the pandemic-induced lockdown in Kerala was witnessed in the case of vegetables and fruits.
While the consumer price of vegetables went up by a marginal 1.9% in June 2020, the price of most vegetables in the State fell by around a quarter. The only important vegetable where prices went up in the State during the period was ash gourd where the prices moved up by 5.8%, as per the analysis of trends in June by Pyaralala Raghavan and George Joseph of Gulathi Institute of Finance and Taxation (GIFT).
The highest fall in vegetable prices were in cabbage (33.5%), followed by green chillies (26.6%), snake gourd (25.6%), pumpkin (25%), tomato (23.6%), Onion (20.6%), lady’s finger (20.5%), bitter gourd (15.9%), brinjal (14.9%), and cucumber (11.9%).
While some of the decline in prices of vegetables, fruits, meat and eggs can be attributed to fall in prices of imports from Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, a major portion of the dip in consumer prices will have to be attributed to the State’s efforts to increase domestic production of vegetables, fruits, meats and egg.
In the case of rice, the price trends was below 5% in June compared to the 6.5% nationally. However, in the case of pulses, the consumer price increase nationally was significantly lower than in the State, where in some cases hike was above 35%.
The consumer price increase was much lower than the national level of 18.8% in the case of meat and eggs. Consumer goods where price increase was benign in the State included sugar, tea, coffee, oil, oilseeds, tobacco, clothing and personal care products. Red chilly and garlic prices rose sharply by 35.9% and 16.7% respectively during the period.
Prices of various baskets of essential commodities moderated/slowed down during June compared to the previous month. A notable fall in the average price was registered in the case of spices while the other essential commodities showed a weak price trend. The notable dip in the prices was for rice and chicken and the decrease was moderate in the case of vegetables in July. In the case of chicken, the average price dropped to ₹95 per kg from ₹125 per kg in June.
The COVID-19 package rolled out by the government, timely disbursement of direct benefit transfer including various pensions, and a bunch of welfare measures helped the market to come out from the lockdown impact, as per the GIFT analysis.
