92% citizens feeling inflation heat, 55% expect prices to go up further

Indian households are feeling the inflation heat, with 92% of the respondents to an online survey saying their average monthly expenses have gone up in the last three months. The survey, conducted by community social media platform LocalCircles, found that given the geopolitical situation, the constrained supplies of several commodities, the Covid-19 pandemic and the overall condition of the economy, 55% of respondents anticipate their monthly expenses to rise by over 10% in the next three months while 26% anticipate the increase to be up to 10%.

The survey attempted to understand from the consumers, about how much their monthly household expenses have risen in the last three months and what do they anticipate in the next three months. It received more than 23,500 responses from over 12,000 households located across 323 districts of India.

Responding to the question "how much have your monthly household expenses increased in the last 3 months due to higher prices of petrol, diesel, edible oil, household essentials and other related products and services?" 22% of the respondents said their household expenses have risen by "Up to 10%" while another 29% said it rose "10-20%". One fourth or 26% said it increased "20-30%" and 10% said "30-40%". While 2% said the increase was "40-50%" another 3% said it was "Over 50%". On an aggregate basis, 70% of Indian households surveyed say their monthly expenses have risen by over 10% in the last 3 months with the average increase being over 15%. Only 2% of the respondents said it has not changed at all. Another 4% said it has reduced.

To the question "Where do you anticipate your average monthly household expenses to be in the next 3 months given the geopolitical situation and the Indian economy?", only 5% said they "anticipate monthly household expenses to still be the same". While 26% said they anticipate further increase by "up to 10%", 31% said "10-20%", 19% said "20-30%", and 5% said "30% or more". There were also 2% of households who anticipate monthly household expenses to reduce by "up to 10%", 1% said by "10-20", 3% said "20-30%", and 4% said by "30% or higher". On an aggregate basis, 55% of Indian households surveyed anticipate their monthly expenses to rise by over 10% in the next three months while 26% anticipate the increase to by up to 10%. Only 4% couldn’t say.

Of the respondents, 62% were men. Tier 1 cities accounted for 42% respondents.