Your money: India
India is the world's most populous country and its fastest-growing big economy — and food dominates its household budgets like nowhere else this site covers. This page grades Indian consumer prices against the central bank's own published target band, with food inflation front and center.
Latest price reading: April 2026 · latest food-price reading: May 2019 · recomputed automatically every night
Household squeeze meter
above RBI targetConsumer prices are up 4.5% on a year ago (April 2026) — inside the Reserve Bank of India's 2–6% tolerance band, but above its 4% target.
Consumer prices
+4.5%vs a year ago
as of April 2026
Wages
not part of this economy's reading — see how it's measured below
How it's measured: Headline CPI only, judged against the Reserve Bank of India's own published tolerance band (4% target, 2–6% band) — India publishes no usable economy-wide wage series, so no pay comparison is shown.
Consumer prices since 2019
India's consumer prices, rebased so the 2019 average = 100 — how much more the same things cost an Indian household than before the pandemic.
Monthly official all-India CPI, rebased here to 2019 = 100. No timely all-India wage series is available from free official sources, so this chart shows prices only — the meter above grades prices against the RBI's own band instead. The exact data route and its lag are stated in the box at the bottom of the page.
- Newest data point:
- April 2026
- Last checked:
- 29 July 2026
- Updates:
- monthly
- Confidence:
- medium
Prices by category (official CPI)
Browse how much more each part of the basket costs — the headline number is the rise since 2019, with the latest year-over-year change below it.
All prices
+36.0%
since 2019
as of April 2026
Food & non-alcoholic drinks
+1.9%
vs a year ago
as of May 2019
Clothing & footwear
+1.8%
vs a year ago
as of May 2019
Housing & utilities
+3.9%
vs a year ago
as of May 2019
Health
+8.0%
vs a year ago
as of May 2019
Transport
+1.6%
vs a year ago
as of May 2019
Education
+7.1%
vs a year ago
as of May 2019
Everything else
+2.7%
vs a year ago
as of May 2019
Monthly official CPI data; the route it reaches this site by, and that route's lag, are stated in the box at the bottom of the page. Where a 2019 baseline isn't available, the latest year-over-year change is shown instead. Rising costs read red, falling read green.
Retail food prices across India
Actual rupee prices from markets across India — not an index. This is the closest thing to what a shopper hands over at the counter.
Onions
since 2019
as of May 2026
Potatoes
since 2019
as of May 2026
Rice
since 2019
as of May 2026
Sugar
since 2019
as of May 2026
Wheat
since 2019
as of May 2026
Wheat flour
since 2019
as of May 2026
Oil (mustard)
since 2019
as of May 2026
Lentils
since 2019
as of May 2026
These are real rupee retail prices for common food staples — national monthly medians across WFP-monitored Indian markets — grouped for browsing. Method: national monthly MEDIAN retail price across all reporting WFP-monitored Indian markets. Median (not mean) so the figure is robust to which markets reported. This aggregates real observations only — a month with no reporting market is absent, never interpolated. Filtered to retail prices quoted in INR with priceflag "actual" or blank; WFP "aggregate"/"forecast" rows were excluded so every stored value is an observed market price. 23 commodities published (>= 60 monthly medians in the 2015-01+ window). Skipped the HDX/HXL tag row (any row beginning with "#") and 0 malformed/truncated rows; dropped 0 price quote(s) outside the 1-5000 rupee sanity band. Newest month 2026-05 (~2 month(s) behind today); WFP updates monthly with a typical 1-3 month lag. National monthly median across WFP-monitored markets. Tax check: these are very likely already GST-inclusive — Indian law requires the price a shop charges to include all taxes — though most of these staples (rice, wheat, dal, milk, onions, potatoes, salt) carry no GST at all; a few processed items (edible oils, sugar, tea) carry 5%, already reflected in the price if so.
Price trend of the tracked commodities — India
Each of the 23 tracked food commodities above is rebased to its own 2019 average (=100), then averaged together — an equal weight for every commodity, not a rupee total (these items have no realistic household quantities to weight by, unlike the US page's basket). A rising line means the tracked commodities are, on average, more expensive than their 2019 average.
The measuring stick: RBI's own band
The Reserve Bank of India publishes an official inflation target of 4%, with a tolerance band of 2–6%. The squeeze meter above grades prices against that published band — the RBI's yardstick, not our judgment.
Why food is the household story in India
Food and beverages make up roughly 46% of India's official CPI basket — in the US the equivalent share is around 13%. When food prices jump, the average Indian household budget moves almost one-for-one, which is why the chart below matters more here than any other single series.
Right now food prices are +1.9% vs a year earlier (as of May 2019).
Food prices — India's CPI food index
The food part of India's consumer price index — the prices behind roughly 46% of what an average Indian household spends.
Monthly official series. Food prices in India can swing sharply with monsoons and harvests, so single-month moves matter less than the trend.
- Newest data point:
- May 2019
- Last checked:
- 29 July 2026
- Updates:
- monthly
- Confidence:
- medium
Where this data comes from
- India Ministry of Statistics (MOSPI), via OECD/DBnomics mirrors — monthly — the mirror's current lag is described in the route note on this page
- World Food Programme (WFP) — India retail food prices, via HDX — monthly, typically 1-3 months behind the survey month
- India's own data portals block automated access; figures travel MOSPI → OECD → DBnomics, so they can lag the domestic release by a few weeks.
- Tax check: these retail prices are very likely already GST-inclusive — India's Legal Metrology rules require the price a shop charges to include all applicable taxes, and WFP/India's Dept. of Consumer Affairs define "retail price" as what a shopper actually pays (this is a reasoned conclusion from that law and definition, not a single explicit government statement saying so, so treat it as high-confidence rather than certain). Most of the raw staples tracked here (rice, wheat, dal/pulses, milk, onions, potatoes, salt) are GST-exempt outright; a few processed items (edible oils, sugar, tea) carry 5% GST that would already be baked into the price shown. Either way, no separate tax needs adding on top of the figures below.
- Food and beverages make up roughly 46% of India's CPI basket — nearly half the index — so food prices dominate what households feel.
- india_cpi_all: DBnomics OECD/DSD_PRICES@DF_PRICES_ALL, series IND.M.N.CPI.IX._T.N._Z ("India – Monthly – National – Consumer price index – Index – Total – Neither seasonally adjusted nor calendar a…") — 136 rows 2015-01 → 2026-04.
- india_cpi_food: DBnomics OECD/DSD_PRICES@DF_PRICES_ALL, series IND.M.N.CPI.IX.CP01.N._Z ("India – Monthly – National – Consumer price index – Index – Food and non-alcoholic beverages – Neither seasona…") — 53 rows 2015-01 → 2019-05.
- india_cpi_clothing: DBnomics OECD/DSD_PRICES@DF_PRICES_ALL, series IND.M.N.CPI.IX.CP03.N._Z ("India – Monthly – National – Consumer price index – Index – Clothing and footwear – Neither seasonally adjuste…") — 53 rows 2015-01 → 2019-05.
- india_cpi_housing: DBnomics OECD/DSD_PRICES@DF_PRICES_ALL, series IND.M.N.CPI.IX.CP04.N._Z ("India – Monthly – National – Consumer price index – Index – Housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels –…") — 53 rows 2015-01 → 2019-05.
- india_cpi_health: DBnomics OECD/DSD_PRICES@DF_PRICES_ALL, series IND.M.N.CPI.IX.CP06.N._Z ("India – Monthly – National – Consumer price index – Index – Health – Neither seasonally adjusted nor calendar …") — 53 rows 2015-01 → 2019-05.
- india_cpi_transport: DBnomics OECD/DSD_PRICES@DF_PRICES_ALL, series IND.M.N.CPI.IX.CP07.N._Z ("India – Monthly – National – Consumer price index – Index – Transport – Neither seasonally adjusted nor calend…") — 53 rows 2015-01 → 2019-05.
- india_cpi_education: DBnomics OECD/DSD_PRICES@DF_PRICES_ALL, series IND.M.N.CPI.IX.CP10.N._Z ("India – Monthly – National – Consumer price index – Index – Education – Neither seasonally adjusted nor calend…") — 53 rows 2015-01 → 2019-05.
- india_cpi_misc: DBnomics OECD/DSD_PRICES@DF_PRICES_ALL, series IND.M.N.CPI.IX.CP12.N._Z ("India – Monthly – National – Consumer price index – Index – Miscellaneous goods and services – Neither seasona…") — 53 rows 2015-01 → 2019-05.
- india_cpi_food is the CPI basket's own "food & non-alcoholic beverages" category (COICOP CP01) — not India's separately published Consumer Food Price Index (CFPI), which is a related but not identical series.
- There is deliberately no india_cpi_fuel_light series: COICOP has no "fuel & light" category (that grouping is MOSPI's own, and no such label exists in the OECD dataset — fixture-verified) — its items live inside india_cpi_housing ("housing & utilities", COICOP CP04).
- india_cpi_food: only 53 monthly rows since 2015-01 (a full 2015+ history would have 100+) — stored as-is and charted with its honestly shorter history, never padded.
- india_cpi_clothing: only 53 monthly rows since 2015-01 (a full 2015+ history would have 100+) — stored as-is and charted with its honestly shorter history, never padded.
- india_cpi_housing: only 53 monthly rows since 2015-01 (a full 2015+ history would have 100+) — stored as-is and charted with its honestly shorter history, never padded.
- india_cpi_health: only 53 monthly rows since 2015-01 (a full 2015+ history would have 100+) — stored as-is and charted with its honestly shorter history, never padded.
- india_cpi_transport: only 53 monthly rows since 2015-01 (a full 2015+ history would have 100+) — stored as-is and charted with its honestly shorter history, never padded.
- india_cpi_education: only 53 monthly rows since 2015-01 (a full 2015+ history would have 100+) — stored as-is and charted with its honestly shorter history, never padded.
- india_cpi_misc: only 53 monthly rows since 2015-01 (a full 2015+ history would have 100+) — stored as-is and charted with its honestly shorter history, never padded.
- The tracked-items trend line averages each of the 23 priced commodities relative to its own 2019 average (100 = that commodity's 2019 average) — not a rupee total; see the price cards above for actual prices.