Inflation in India may officially be near record lows but for the urban middle class, life in metro cities is starting to feel as expensive as San Francisco or Dubai.

Investment banker Sarthak Ahuja says it’s time to stop relying on national averages to understand the real cost of living. Advertisement

Ahuja, writing on LinkedIn, shared that friends from global cities like San Francisco, Hong Kong, Dubai, and Switzerland are stunned at how expensive Gurgaon has become.

“Whenever they visit India, they end up spending the same amount eating out, ordering in, or visiting salons,” he wrote.

It seems counterintuitive at a time when India’s CPI inflation for October 2025 is just 0.25%—possibly the lowest in history. But as Ahuja explains, these numbers are deeply skewed by how subsidies an

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