SHILLONG —Meghalaya’s retail inflation stood at 3.59% in September, below India’s 5.54%. The figures released on October 12 put the state below Assam, Manipur and Sikkim, but that gap alone says nothing about whether a family in Shillong is spending less at the market.
Manipur recorded 5.10% inflation, Sikkim 4.83% and Assam 4.62%. Tripura came in at 3.96%, Arunachal Pradesh at 3.70% and Meghalaya at 3.59%. Nagaland stood at 3.22%, while Mizoram recorded 2.85%.
Inside Meghalaya, rural inflation reached 3.72%, against 3.22% in urban areas. The difference is half a percentage point. Rural prices rose faster; the published figures do not say which items drove the gap.
National food inflation jumped to 7.74% in September from 5.97% in August. Overall retail inflation also climbed, reaching 5.54% against 4.83% a month earlier.
Onions recorded 108.09% inflation nationally. Ginger reached 62.85%, garlic 54.62% and lemons 36.41%. Potatoes moved in the opposite direction, with prices down 11.50%; tomatoes fell 8.62%. Those figures are national, not Meghalaya market prices. The state-level numbers do not reveal what happened to the price of onions in Iewduh, how much a household paid for vegetables, or whether local wages kept pace.
MoSPI collected September price data from 1,407 urban markets and 1,465 villages. The figures remain provisional.
