Every news channel and newspaper around the world are talking about the rise in crude oil prices and the prices of the food grain. Looking at the current scenario no doubt India is consuming but it does not mean to say that the consumption levels have gone so high that the US is unable to withstand the rise in prices. The US Prez blatantly blames India for having adopted a higher standard of living and hence the rise is attributed. I recently went through an article which gave a clear cut position of India and the US in terms of consumption of food grains.
Source: Food and Agricultural Organization of UN Statistics
India in the last year has added another 20mn people and the percentage change in the consumption has gone by just 2.17%. Now does it mean that an average middle class family’s standard of living in India has increased to that an extent that the rise in the food prices can be attributed to India. For that matter look at China, it has added only 1.8% in its consumption levels. Even though these 2 countries compete in terms of population but the level of consumption is almost the same. Now if I have to question back the US, how on earth is US seeing a growth of 11.81% ? This is approx. 6 times the growth in India in food grain consumption levels.
The numbers are here to speak and I wish that higher officials better have their numbers ready before making a public statement and thereby creating a chaos all over the world.
