Folks in rural areas – or 69 per cent of India’s population -- have got the rough end of the stick on inflation compared with their urban counterparts, as per an analysis of data for the last five years by Crisil Research.
Specifically, in the 24 months to June 2016, while urban inflation fell from 9 per cent to 5.3 per cent (compared with the two years prior), rural inflation declined from 10.1 per cent to 6.2 per cent.
The gap has remained ~100 basis points in the recent past, caused by higher core and fuel inflation in the rural areas, said Crisil Research.
In fiscal 2016, rural core inflation was 6.7 per cent compared with 4.8 per cent in urban areas.
Sub-categories such as health, education, household goods and services and recreation and amusement have all recorded higher inflation in hinterland last fiscal, it said.