A 11-year high of 55% urban residents report stagnant income in 2025

Concerns over stagnant income levels overshadowed optimism about reduced expenses among urban consumers

Urban consumers in India began the new year with both hope and concern. On the one hand, India’s retail inflation eased to a five-month low of 4.31% in January, providing some relief to consumers by reducing the pressure on their household expenses. On the other, worries about the employment scenario continued to weigh on them.

Income levels too have been stagnant — in January, 55% of urban consumers reported that their income levels had remained unchanged compared to the same period last year. This is the highest such share in nearly 11 years.

As concerns over stagnant income levels overshadowed any optimism about reduced expenses, a growing share of urban consumers remained pessimistic about the broader economic outlook as the new year began, says the Reserve Bank of India’s Consumer Confidence Survey, which was conducted across 19 major cities in January. It covered 6,081 respondents, of which 52.4% were women.

Chart 1 shows the share of respondents who said that the prices of commodities had increased/decreased/stayed the same in January 2025 compared to a year ago. 

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The share of respondents who reported an increase in prices in January this year (93%) was the lowest since July last year. Around 1% of the respondents said that prices had declined, which has been the case since the pandemic. An increasing share said that prices had continued to remain the same.

Chart 2 shows the share of respondents (%) who said that the spending on essential items increased/decreased/stayed same