Kolkata: Low retail inflation figures have come to dominate the macro-economic discourse in the country as much as headline GDP growth figures. Thanks
to unusually low food inflation, the retail inflation figures have gone down below 2%, the lower guidance for the Reserve Bank of India. It stood at 1,54% in September and 0.25% in October 2025. According to reports, taking advantage of the easing food prices — especially due to decline in prices of vegetables and pulses — the cost of preparing home-cooked vegetarian and non-vegetarian thalis both declined by a sharp 13% (year-on-year) November, according to Crisil’s monthly indicator of food plate cost.
Crisil publishes this monthly indicator almost as a proxy of the food inflation in the country. According to the report, the fall in the cost of a vegetarian thali was engineered by a dip in vegetables and pulse price. The expenses for cooking a non-vegetarian thali fell, thanks mainly to a 12% drop in the price of broiler chicken. Incidentally, the cost of this thali is accounted for by the price of chicken to an extent of 50%. The easing prices of vegetables and pulses also guided the lower prices of non-veg thalis of which they are an essential part.
Fall in potato, onion, tomato, broiler prices
Itemwise, the prices of tomato fell 17% (y-o-y), thanks to higher supplies. The price of another essential vegetable, potato, fell as much as 29%. Cost of onion dipped by a huge 53% due to the availability of higher stock from the previous rabi season, said report. Another driving factors for lower onion prices was lower export figures.
Prices of pulses was down 17% and it was mainly attributed to higher stocks in the current fiscal year. This was led by high imports of Bengal gram, yellow pea and black gram. The import of Bengal gram went up 9 times in FY25, yellow pea imports rose 85% and black gram imports jumped 31%. These higher imports depressed the prices of these ingredients, said Crisil.
Rise on a sequential basis
But on a month-on-month basis, the cost of a vegetarian thali rose 2%, But the price of a non-vegetarian thali declined 1% on a sequential basis in November. Potato and tomato prices increased 5% and 14% on a sequential basis, which nudged the prices of thalis on a month-on-month basis.
