72% Ind feel inflation rose under Modi

Ahead of the Union Budget, a new survey shows growing unease among the general public due to rising prices of everyday items under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Nearly three-fourth of the respondents in the -CVoter survey said that inflation has gone up and nearly 40 per cent said that high inflation has had an adverse impact on their quality of life.

The incumbent Modi-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) has already come under attack ever since a sharp rise in prices of vegetables, particularly that of onions, disturbed the math for households across the country.

Retail inflation for December at 7.35 per cent was the highest in little over five years. This is for the first time since July 2016 that the Consumer Price Index (CPI) inflation is breaching the 2 per cent to 6 per cent inflation band set for the RBI by the government.

The higher than expected inflation immediately puts the central bank on a cautious path. While it may not hike rate in the next RBI policy meeting, a rate cut that should have ideally come in the backdrop of a constantly slowing economy too looks unlikely now.

Besides, the WPI data also showed a sharp uptick in wholesale inflation. It jumped to 2.59 per cent in December from 0.58 per cent in November.

The Congress had earlier said that the Modi government was responsible for pushing the Indian economy on the verge of Stagflation, a phenomenon of falling growth and rising inflation.

( With inputs from IANS )