No respite from price hikes; inflation bites harder in April

After steady rise in cost of living for over a year, if you were expecting some respite in the new financial year, the ongoing trend is sure to disappoint you. From daily essentials like milk, soaps and packaged foods to consumer discretionary items like home appliances, cars and residential homes - prices of most items are likely to go up further in coming weeks.

The largest player in the packaged milk market - Gujarat Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation or Amul is expected effect a hike in prices soon. According to RS Sodhi, managing director of the Anand-based co-operative, said prices are set to up as inputs costs have surged significantly. Incidentally, Amul hiked milk prices by Rs 2 per Kg in early-March. Others like Govardhan Dairy and state co-operatives from Goa and Odisha have already hiked prices in April by Rs 4 and Rs 2 per Kg, respectively.

Hindustan Unilever - the country's largest fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) company is raising prices of skin-care and detergents again in April. The firm has already increased prices in 5 times in last six months. According to industry sources, it is effecting 10-20 per cent for its top selling soaps like Dove, Lifebuoy and Pears. While in its detergents and dishwasher portfolio - brands like Wheel and Vim - are set to get costlier by 3-5 per cent.

Apart from increasing maximum retail price of their products, leading FMCG companies like HUL, Nestle and ITC, among others, are also considering reducing grammage - resulting in lower quantity of the same products at the same price.

In the consumer discretionary space, leading passenger vehicle maker Maruti Suzuki has already hiked prices of nearly all uts models this week. While its most affordable offering Alto has got dearer by Rs 6,000, top-selling models like Swift and WagonR have received a hike of Rs 7,000 - depending on versions. While costlier models like Breeza and Ciaz are now Rs 11,000 and Rs 12,000 costlier, respectively.

Others like Toyota Motors India has announced a four per cent increase in prices of its passenger cars, while Kia Motors is increasing prices by up to Rs 36,000 for Sonet and Seltos. Hyundai Motor India raised price of its popular Creta cars by Rs 5,000, while premium care maker Volvo has announced price hikes in the range of 2-4 per cent for its models like XC40, XC60, XC90 and S90.
 
Royal Enfield that continues to rule the above 300CC two-wheeler market segment, is implementing an increase of Rs 4,200 for its adventure bike 400CC Himalayan.

In the residential real estate space, most developers are already in process to implement a 5-7 per cent hike in home prices, as per industry body CREDAI. Harsh Vardhan Patodia, National President of the apex real estate body in the country also said that in total 10-15 per cent hike in home prices are imminent as surging raw material and cost of logistics have left no other option to developers.

Also read: WPI inflation rises to 14.55% on-year in March

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