New Delhi, Oct 26 (KNN) Inflation may have dropped significantly from last year, but middle class people still find high prices of goods and services consumed by them, growing beyond their comfort level with pulses, prepared meals, snacks, education, health and clothing staying expensive, a study pointed out.

“At the retail level, the inflation as measured by the Consumer Price Index (CPI) has been very high close to 30 per cent for pulses with some of them reaching Rs 200 a kg, while spices which go into preparation of the curries have witnessed price rise of 9.2 per cent,” said an ASSOCHAM analysis.

Despite fuel prices coming down and moderate rise in wages, the cost of education and health services, the two critical areas of interest to the middle class has gone up, much higher than the headline number of CPI for September of 4.41 per cent, it said.

In its analysis of the CPI trend, the industry body pointed out that the middle class continued to reel under inflationary pressures as the most items it consumed were still rising above headline CPI numbers.

It showed that other items of use for the middle class like meat, fish, milk and milk products have also seen significant increase between 5 and 5.5 per cent.

“The headline number drop has made interest rates somewhat softer, but the EMIs have not significantly come down either,” it said.

While the RBI has in the last instance reduced the policy rate by 50 basis points, the average transmission is not above 30 bps despite so much of prodding by the government and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), added the study. (KNN Bureau)