The irregular rainfall patterns in India have resulted in lower kharif crop sowing, which is likely to lead to higher inflation in the near future, according to Bank of Baroda s Economics research department. While the nationwide rainfall has been 6% above the long-period average (LPA) until 30 July, the eastern and northeastern regions had less precipitation and the northwest recorded more than usual.
The weather office on Thursday reduced the benchmark to define normal Southwest monsoon rainfall to 868.6 mm from the previous 880.6 mm on the basis of availability of fresh data from its network of rain guages across the country.