Andy Mukherjee, Columnist

India’s Central Bank Is Caught Between Tomatoes and Cookies

Soaring food prices are once again pushing inflation into uncomfortable territory.

August 10, 2023 at 9:00 PM UTC

Andy Mukherjee is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering industrial companies and financial services in Asia. Previously, he worked for Reuters, the Straits Times and Bloomberg News.

Price spike.
Photographer: Dhiraj Singh/Bloomberg

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Food prices in India are sending confusing signals — cookies are becoming more affordable, but meals are turning more expensive. While the former may be a more permanent indicator of commodity inflation, could the central bank really afford to ignore the latter as transient?

The cost of a home-cooked vegetarian lunch or dinner in the world’s most-populous nation jumped by 28% in just one month, largely because of tomatoes. In New Delhi’s Azadpur, one of Asia’s biggest perishables markets, prices have shot up 17-fold since the end of May.