65 Per Cent Urban Indians Expect Inflation To Rise And Interest Rates To Soar In Next One Year

65 per cent of Urban Indians expect inflation to rise further and interest rates and tax to soar higher in next one year.

New Delhi: Indians living in urban areas expect inflation to rise further in the next 12-18 months, as per the findings of a survey conducted by Ipsos Global Inflation Monitor for the month of November. The data also showed that consumers also expect interest rates and taxes to soar further.

“At least 65% of urban Indians polled and 69% of global citizens polled foresee inflation to further go up. Further, 58% urban Indians expect interest rates to soar, taxes (56%) and unemployment to further increase in the next one year (59%). On probing the top reasons for price increases, at least 70% of urban Indians polled pinned it down to businesses making excessive profits, interest rate levels in the country (69%) and policies of the national government (69%),” Mint quoted the findings of the survey released Friday.

While inflation on key commodities has been cooling, the impact of high prices is still being felt by households.

“Interesting new angle emerging for price rise. Marketers often offset the impact of the rising input cost, through the shrinkflation route, by passing on the burden to the consumers, though they have been highly cautious by either retaining the price points by decreasing the grammage or size of the SKU or absorbing the cost. The full impact of global economic slowdown, Ukraine war and Covid-19 pandemic are lower in the pecking order among the top causes of price rise and inflation,” Amit Adarkar, CEO, Ipsos India told Mint.

DISPOSABLE INCOME EXPECTED TO RISE

However, inflation notwithstanding, one in two urban Indians expect their standard of living to improve in the next one year. Meanwhile, one in two urban Indians is optimistic about their disposable incomes increasing in the next one year.

Overall, India was the third most optimistic market after Thailand and the UAE. Global citizens were more muted in their optimism, about the standard of living improving and disposable incomes improving.