India's Economy in Numbers: Latest CPI and WPI Inflation, Updated from Official Releases
The latest numbers
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This page follows India's two headline price indices month by month. It is refreshed from the official press release on the day it comes out, and a figure is shown only after it has been checked against a second place in the same release. Last checked 8 November 2026.
Indicator | Month | Latest | Month before | Released by | Source |
Retail inflation (CPI-Combined) | September 2026 | 5.54 per cent | 4.83 per cent | NSO, Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation | |
Wholesale inflation (WPI) | September 2026 | 11.39 per cent | 9.92 per cent | Office of the Economic Adviser, DPIIT, Ministry of Commerce and Industry |
In the latest releases wholesale inflation (11.39 per cent) is above retail inflation (5.54 per cent), a gap of 5.85 points. When WPI runs ahead of CPI, producers face cost pressure that can reach shop prices later.
Retail inflation (CPI)
Retail inflation: the Consumer Price Index
All India CPI inflation for September 2026 was 5.54 per cent (provisional): rural 6.08 per cent, urban 4.88 per cent. Food inflation on the Consumer Food Price Index (CFPI) was 7.74 per cent. That is inside the 2 to 6 per cent band around the 4 per cent target.
Month by month (the newest month is provisional; a month becomes final in the next release):
Month | CPI inflation | Food (CFPI) | Rural / Urban |
September 2026 | 5.54 per cent (provisional) | 7.74 per cent | 6.08 per cent / 4.88 per cent |
August 2026 | 4.83 per cent | 5.97 per cent | 5.24 per cent / 4.31 per cent |
July 2026 | 4.45 per cent | 5.52 per cent | 4.84 per cent / 3.96 per cent |
June 2026 | 4.38 per cent | 5.32 per cent | 4.74 per cent / 3.93 per cent |
May 2026 | 3.93 per cent | 4.78 per cent | 4.25 per cent / 3.53 per cent |
April 2026 | 3.48 per cent | 4.20 per cent | 3.74 per cent / 3.16 per cent |
March 2026 | 3.40 per cent | 3.87 per cent | 3.63 per cent / 3.11 per cent |
February 2026 | 3.21 per cent | 3.47 per cent | 3.37 per cent / 3.02 per cent |
January 2026 | 2.74 per cent | 2.13 per cent | 2.73 per cent / 2.75 per cent |
Who and when: the National Statistics Office (NSO), Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, releases it on the 12th of the following month (the next working day if the 12th is a holiday).
Base year 2024=100: the new series replaced base 2012 from the January 2026 index, so 2026 figures are compared with the new series only.
Why it matters: by Gazette notification of 25 March 2026 the Government kept the inflation target at 4 per cent with a band of 2 to 6 per cent, measured on CPI-Combined, for 1 April 2026 to 31 March 2031 (Section 45ZA of the RBI Act). The six-member Monetary Policy Committee sets the repo rate to meet it.
Rural, urban, combined: separate indices are compiled for rural and urban India; the combined index is the headline.
Wholesale inflation (WPI)
Wholesale inflation: the Wholesale Price Index
All India WPI inflation for September 2026 was 11.39 per cent year on year (provisional), against 9.92 per cent in August 2026. The All Commodities index stood at 112.5 (2022-23=100).
Major group | Inflation, September 2026 |
Primary Articles | 8.67 per cent |
Fuel and Power | 25.85 per cent |
Manufactured Products | 9.76 per cent |
WPI Food Index (weight 24.99 per cent) | 8.66 per cent |
Month by month (WPI is revised to final two months later):
Month | WPI inflation | All Commodities index |
September 2026 | 11.39 per cent (provisional) | 112.5 |
August 2026 | 9.92 per cent (provisional) | 110.8 |
July 2026 | 9.78 per cent | 110.0 |
June 2026 | 9.97 per cent | 110.3 |
May 2026 | 9.88 per cent | 110.1 |
April 2026 | 8.36 per cent | 108.9 |
Who and when: the Office of the Economic Adviser, Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), Ministry of Commerce and Industry, releases provisional WPI on the 14th of the following month (the next working day if not); the next release is due on 16 November 2026.
Base year 2022-23: three major groups: Primary Articles, Fuel and Power, Manufactured Products. Alongside WPI the Office now releases an Output Producer Price Index and a trial Input PPI.
CPI and WPI differ: WPI tracks goods at the wholesale stage and has no services; CPI tracks what households pay, services included, and is the index the inflation target uses.
Reading the numbers
The trend in 2026. Retail inflation rose from 2.74 per cent in January 2026 to 5.54 per cent in September 2026, with food inflation at 7.74 per cent. Wholesale inflation stood at 11.39 per cent in September 2026; cumulative WPI inflation for April to September 2026-27 was 9.85 per cent, against -0.20 per cent for the same months of 2025-26.
What pushed WPI up in September 2026, as listed by the Office of the Economic Adviser: Mineral Oils (containing Petroleum Products), Food Articles, Crude Petroleum & Natural Gas, Coal and Lignite, Manufacture of Basic Metals, Manufacture of Chemicals and Chemical Products, Manufacture of Textiles, Manufacture of Rubber and Plastic Products, Manufacture of Electrical Equipment.
Year on year: the headline compares this month's index with the same month a year ago, so it measures the change over twelve months, not over the last month.
Base effect: because the comparison is with a year earlier, a low index a year ago can push this year's rate up even when prices are steady now, and a high one can pull it down.
Provisional, then final: CPI for a month is revised to final in the next release; WPI two months later. This page shows the final figure once it exists.
Disinflation is not deflation: a falling rate (disinflation) still means prices are rising, only more slowly; deflation means a negative rate.
Sources
Every figure above is read from the official press release linked in the table: the NSO (MoSPI) for CPI and the Office of the Economic Adviser (DPIIT) for WPI. The inflation target is from the Gazette notification of 25 March 2026. Earlier months come from the same series of releases.