Edible oil inflation has been very high in post-covid phase

Even though food inflation has fallen sharply in the last three months, inflation in edible oils continues to stay high. Average annual growth in retail inflation for edible oil and fats was 1.3% between January and December 2019. This increased to 12.3% between January and December 2020. The annual growth in inflation for this category was 19.7% in January. Edible oil and fat category has a weight of 3.56% in the Consumer Price Index (CPI) basket, which is more than the 2.38% share of pulses, and more than half of the 6.04% for vegetables. Clearly, edible oils are an important driver of food inflation.