Indian Inflation climbs again

NEW DELHI (Reuters) Original source India's headline inflation likely accelerated to an 11-month high in October on costlier fuel and food, a headache for the government in a battle with the central bank over spending and high interest rates ahead of state elections. Wholesale prices - India's main inflation gauge - rose an annual 7.96 percent, according to a Reuters poll of economists, faster than the 7.81 percent reported in September. Headline inflation has averaged close to 9 percent since January 2011. The government will release the data at around 0630 GMT (1.30 a.m EDT) on Wednesday. With the economy on track to post its slowest growth in a decade, the government is pressing the central bank to join efforts to revive activity ahead of a general election due in just over a year and several state polls before that. Election-related spending could put additional upward pressure on prices next year. But the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has thus far rebuffed those calls, saying prices are still rising too fast to risk loosening policy much. The bank says rising rural wages, a result of government policies, are stoking inflation. The next monetary policy review is due in December. The central bank has said any interest rate cut is "highly improbable" at that meeting, since it expects price pressures to remain elevated following a hike in the price of heavily subsidized diesel in September. Read more

Hopefully Indian families were saving in gold, because if they did they would have beaten the inflation rate by over 5%. And a real rate of return of 5% is an excellent return in these uncertain times.