Reuters
Indian manufacturers are raising prices to pass on to consumers some of the burden of costlier energy and raw materials, which threatens to dent demand as well as a recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, business leaders and economists say. Prices of items from tea, coffee and biscuits to toothpaste and electric components have risen 4% to 10% in the last quarter, while construction supplies, such as cement and sanitary ware, have added as much as a fifth, they said. Big companies such as Hindustan Unilever, Nestle , Procter & Gamble, Ambuja Cement and Kajaria Ceramics, have blamed the increases on higher costs of oil and other raw materials.