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Inflation at your service
As inflation gets talked about mainly around food items, the price monster is swallowing large chunks of household budgets and taking the juice out of urban Indians’ lifestyles.
As inflation gets talked about mainly around food items, the price monster is swallowing large chunks of household budgets and taking the juice out of urban Indians’ lifestyles.
Gym fees and simple luxuries like eating out, movies and salon visits have become costlier in the last year. Even utilities like power and telephone are pinching harder.
The Wholesale Price Index — slightly down in June — has hovered above 7% in the last few months. The more realistic Consumer Price Inflation, which captures shop-end prices, rose 10.02% in June.
While Samiran Chakraborty, regional head of research (south Asia), Standard Chartered Bank, felt no cost-of-living index “appropriately measures services inflation in India”, RBI governor D Subbarao’s recent speech was insightful.
“Twenty years ago when I had thick hair, I paid Rs 25 for a haircut. Ten years ago when it started thinning, I was paying Rs 50. Now when I have virtually no hair left, I pay Rs 150,” he said.
