Soaring inflation has eaten into household budgets in leading metros of the country, according to a new survey.
High fuel cost, rising cost of education and health as well as high insurance premia have eroded household savings by almost 40 per cent, a survey by industry chamber, the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (Assocham) said. However, the high income group remains largely unaffected by the high inflation, it adds.
According to the survey, as many as 82 per cent of the respondents in the metro cities said that they have been falling behind financially and their standard of living has been impacted to the extent of at least 25 per cent.
“Net financial savings by Indians which include deposits with banks and non-banking finance companies, cash, investment in stocks, debentures and small savings instruments besides life insurance, provident fund and pension funds, dipped considerably because of household financial liabilities have risen,” D S Rawat, secretary general of the Assocham said.
The survey respondents indicated that people were resorting to better paying jobs, overtime or a second job to balance out the high costs. This is evident as over 82% of the respondents added that their wage hikes was ‘not in sync’ with the cost of living which is said to have risen by 40-45 per cent.
Adding to this, 60 per cent of the respondents said that their take home currently is not more than 35 per cent of their total package and left over amount of 15,000 is spent for food, commuting costs, utilities, doctor and education bills.
The survey was conducted in three months beginning January to March 2013 in major places like Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Ahmedabad, Hyderabad, Pune, Chandigarh and Dehradun, among others.