Every year, Dawn’s Business & Finance team runs a survey to gauge what an average middle-income family is spending on and how the events of the past year have affected their consumption patterns. This year the survey was answered by 1,344 people across more than 80 cities.

Of the four income bands, the number of people in the lowest band have increased while those in the second-lowest band have decreased though the Rs100,000-200,000 band has remained roughly constant. On the other hand, there has been an increased in the number of people in the highest middle-income group. Results suggest that those at the lower end of the middle-income group have been hit the hardest and slipped down an income band. Household income remained the same or decreased for 75 per cent of the respondents. Despite the downward trend in income, the middle-income group is paying a hefty increase in income tax.

Published in Dawn, The Business and Finance Weekly, June 15th, 2020