reportonbusiness.com: 12%: India's growing inflation problem

Read More Here: "PUNE, INDIA -- In her tiny, smoky kitchen, Surekha Kawade tosses a chappati, a flat, unleavened Indian bread, on a hot pan as she does every day with every meal.

But Ms. Kawade, 35, is anxious that this staple food item is inexorably slipping beyond her means. A widowed mother of two daughters, she earns 2,800 rupees ($70.36) a month as a house maid in this town on the edge of Mumbai in western India. Since last year, the price of wheat flour has shot up by 20 per cent, she said.

'It's not just wheat, but also rice, pulses, spices, eggs, meat, cooking gas ... everything costs so much more,' Ms. Kawade complained. 'A simple meal is becoming a luxury.'

Once infamous for its gruesome famines, India recently experienced a torrid economic boom that lifted millions out of poverty. But the boom has also stoked prices, with inflation breaking through the 12 per cent barrier last week, the highest it has been in nearly 14 years and up from under 5 per cent a year ago. Economists warn that it could peak at 14 per cent later this year."