India recently experienced increases in food price inflation

Since 1990, India's overall economic growth has accelerated, rising from an annual average of 5.2 percent during 1991-95 to 8.4 percent during 2006-10. Economic performance has generally been consistent with two key policy priorities-employment generation and price stability. Since 2008, however, inflation-including food price inflation-has emerged as a threat to sustained growth and consumer welfare. Following a prolonged period of general stability in real food prices extending back to the 1970s, real wholesale food prices have averaged 3.8 percent higher, and retail prices about 2 percent higher, during 2006-10. This graph may be found in the India topic page on the ERS website, updated August 18, 2011.