Food Inflation May Be Benign This Year: Nestlé 's Narayanan

Nestlé India expects food inflation to be more “benign" this year, and the government’s infrastructure spending to boost jobs and incomes, bolstering consumption of essential items, said a top executive at the packaged foods company.

- Suneera Tandon

“I think in overall terms, this year looks to be more benign as far as food inflation is concerned. And therefore one is expecting that with an infusion of investment, of incomes into the economy, there will be signs of an uptick," Suresh Narayanan, chairman and managing director, Nestlé India, told reporters at the company’s head office in Gurugram.

“Since there is economic stability and a lot of programmes are being put around infrastructure investment— ₹11 trillion has been committed in the last vote-on-account budget that we’ve had—all this will definitely add to employment and to incomes. A lot of it will be flowing into consumption of essentials," he added.

Overall household consumption is seeing a duality—with more affluent Indians lapping up premium goods while middle-income households are showing some “signs of stress", he added.