Prices of sugar, rice and other essential commodities surge ahead of festive season

India pre-festive food inflation: onions +97.8%, sugar +23.4%, rice +10.1% year on year, with Chennai commercial LPG up 67.7%, signals sticky headline CPI pressure as Dasara and Deepavali demand peaks. This raises the risk of a hawkish RBI stance, weighing on Indian equities and the rupee, while supporting gold as an inflation hedge. Global spillover is contained, but food and energy cost pressures bear watching.