A man walks along a wall overlooking the skyline of Mumbai’s central financial district, India March 9, 2017. REUTERS/Danish Siddiqui/File Photo

BENGALURU, Sept 26 (Reuters) – Indian employers are expected to increase their employees’ salaries by 10.4% next year, almost on par with the previous 10.6% in 2022, Aon PLC (AON.N) said on Monday.

The prospect of a double-digit pay rise comes as the South Asian country grapples with rising inflation amid fears of a global economic slowdown. India’s inflation rose to 7% in August and remained above the central bank’s tolerance level for eight consecutive months through August.

“This (salary) increase reflects the confidence Indian companies have in their strong business performance,” said Roopank Chaudhary, Partner, Human Capital Solutions at Aon in India, in a statement based on a survey.

The survey analyzed data from 1,300 companies across more than 40 industries.

But business leaders must balance the impact of rising costs and wage pressures with a relatively high turnover rate and continued demand for critical talent, Chaudhary said.

Attrition in the first six months of this year remained high at 20.3%, but slightly lower than 2021’s 21%, the survey found.

E-commerce leads the sectors with the highest projected salary increase of 12.8%, followed by start-ups with 12.7%, high-tech/information technology and IT-enabled services with 11.3% and financial institutions with 10.7 %.

Reporting by Ashish Chandra in Bengaluru; Edited by Dhanya Ann Thoppil

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