The survey also showed that 44.4 per cent of the respondents felt that prices will come down after the Budget, while the comparable number stood at 43.43 last year. On the other hand, only 11.8 per cent of the respondents felt that the inflation will fall after the Budget, lower from 15.1 per cent last year.
The Narendra Modi-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government has already come under attack ever since a sharp rise in prices of vegetables, particularly that of onions, disturbed the maths for households across the country.
Retail inflation for December at 7.35 per cent was the highest in little over five years. This is for the first time since July 2016 that the Consumer Price Index (CPI) inflation is breaching the 2 per cent to 6 per cent inflation band set for the RBI by the government.
The higher than expected inflation immediately puts the central bank on a cautious path. While it may not hike rate in the next monetary policy meeting, a rate cut that should have ideally come in the backdrop of a constantly slowing economy too looks unlikely now.
Besides, the WPI data also showed a sharp uptick in wholesale inflation. It jumped to 2.59 per cent in December from 0.58 per cent in November.
The Congress had earlier said that the Modi government was responsible for pushing the Indian economy on the verge of stagflation, a phenomenon of falling growth and rising inflation.
( With inputs from IANS )