Analysis-India's middle class tightens its belt, squeezed by food inflation

India's city dwellers are cutting spending on everything from cookies to fast food as persistently high inflation squeezes middle class budgets, threatening the country's brisk economic growth. Slowing urban spending over the past three to four months has not only hurt the earnings of largest consumer goods firms, it has raised questions about the structural nature of India's long-term economic success. Since the end of the pandemic, India's economic growth has been driven in large part by urban consumption, however, that now seems to be changing.