**Executive Summary**
The Ministry of Statistics & Programme Implementation (MoSPI) has released the Consumer Price Index (CPI) and Consumer Food Price Index (CFPI) for April 2026, based on the 2024=100 series. The report identifies a national retail inflation rate of 3.48% and a food inflation rate of 4.20% for the month. Key stakeholders should note that the next CPI data release for May 2026 is scheduled for June 12, 2026.
**Key Points / Main Content**
**National Inflation Statistics**
* **General Retail Inflation (CPI):** The provisional year-on-year inflation rate for April 2026 is 3.48%. Rural inflation stands at 3.74%, while urban inflation is 3.16%.
* **Food Inflation (CFPI):** The year-on-year food inflation rate is 4.20%. Rural and urban food inflation rates are 4.26% and 4.10%, respectively.
* **Housing Inflation:** The year-on-year housing inflation rate for April 2026 is 2.15% (Rural: 2.65%; Urban: 1.96%).
**Division-Wise Inflation Trends**
* **Highest Inflation Categories:** "Personal care, social protection and miscellaneous goods and services" recorded the highest inflation at 17.66%. Other high sectors include "Paan, tobacco and intoxicants" (4.76%) and "Restaurants and accommodation services" (4.20%).
* **Lowest Inflation Categories:** The "Transport" sector showed a slight deflation of -0.01%, while "Information and communication" remained low at 0.50%.
**Item-Specific Price Changes**
* **High Inflation Items:** Silver jewellery saw a significant increase of 144.34%. Other high-inflation items include Coconut (44.55%), Gold/Diamond/Platinum jewellery (40.72%), and Tomatoes (35.28%).
* **Low/Negative Inflation Items:** Significant price drops were recorded for Potatoes (-23.69%), Onions (-17.67%), Motor cars and jeeps (-7.12%), and Peas/chickpeas (-6.75%).
**State-Level Indices**
* Telangana recorded the highest inflation among major states at 5.81%.
* Other states with high inflation include Andhra Pradesh (4.20%), Tamil Nadu (4.18%), and Karnataka (4.00%).
**Data Collection and Methodology**
* Price data was collected from 1,407 urban markets and 1,465 villages.
* The response rate for April 2026 was high, with 99.44% for rural markets and 99.82% for urban markets.
**Impact Analysis**
**General Public / Consumers**
**Impact**
Consumers are facing higher costs for personal care and services, as well as significant price hikes in precious metals and certain vegetables like tomatoes. However, staple items like potatoes and onions have become significantly more affordable.
**Action Required**
Households should adjust their monthly budgets to account for the 4.20% increase in food costs and the 17.66% spike in personal care expenses.
**Economists and Market Analysts**
**Impact**
The transition to the 2024=100 base year provides a refreshed benchmark for economic forecasting. Analysts now have finalized March 2026 figures (3.40% inflation) to compare against provisional April data.
**Action Required**
Analysts should download detailed state and item-wise indices from the eSankhyiki portal for deeper trend analysis and prepare for the next data release on June 12, 2026.
**Government and Policymakers**
**Impact**
Policy focus may be required in high-inflation states like Telangana and for specific volatile commodities (e.g., silver and tomatoes) to stabilize the combined inflation rate.
**Action Required**
The Field Operations Division of NSO must continue its weekly roster for price collection to maintain high response rates for the upcoming May 2026 report.
Key Entities Referenced
Consumer Price Index (CPI): The primary statistical measure used to track retail inflation across rural, urban, and combined sectors, currently based on the year 2024=100.
Consumer Food Price Index (CFPI): A specific sub-index of the CPI used to measure the year-on-year inflation rate for food items at the national and state levels.
Ministry of Statistics & Programme Implementation (MoSPI): The nodal ministry responsible for the computation, management, and release of national price indices and inflation data.
National Statistical Office (NSO): The statistical wing under MoSPI whose Field Operations Division is responsible for real-time price data collection from urban markets and villages.
eSankhyiki portal: The official digital platform of MoSPI dedicated to hosting and providing downloadable state-level and item-wise index data for public access.
Ministry of Statistics & Programme Implementation
PRESS RELEASE OF CONSUMER PRICE INDEX
ON BASE 2024=100 FOR APRIL, 2026
Posted On: 12 MAY 2026 4:00PM by PIB Delhi
Highlights
Retail inflation based on Consumer Price Index in April, 2026 is 3.48%
Year on year food inflation, based on Consumer Food Price Index, in April, 2026 is 4.20%
I. Key Statistics
A. National Level Indices
Year-on-year inflation rate based on All India Consumer Price Index (CPI) with base year 2024 for the
month of April, 2026 over April, 2025 is 3.48%(Provisional). Corresponding inflation rates for rural and
urban are 3.74% and 3.16%, respectively.
April, 2026 (Provisional)
March, 2026 (Final)
Rural Urban Combined Rural Urban Combined
Inflation CPI 3.74 3.16 3.48 3.63 3.11 3.40
(%) (General)
CFPI 4.26 4.10 4.20 3.95 3.71 3.87
Index CPI 105.28 104.92 105.12 105.02 104.62 104.84
(General)
CFPI 104.17 104.78 104.39 104.01 104.38 104.14
Food Inflation: - Year-on-year inflation rate based on All India Consumer Food Price Index (CFPI) for
the month of April, 2026 over April, 2025 is 4.20% (Provisional). Corresponding inflation rates for rural
and urban are 4.26% and 4.10%, respectively.Housing Inflation: - Year-on-year Housing inflation rate for the month of April, 2026 is 2.15%
(Provisional) and the corresponding inflation rates for rural and urban are 2.65% and 1.96%, respectively.
At National level, division wise inflation for the month of April, 2026 in the Combined sector may be seen
from the graph below-
Top 5 key items with low inflation at All India combined level in April, 2026 are given in table below:S.No. Item Weight Inflation (%) Inflation (%)
March, 2026 April, 2026
1 Potato 0.7549 -19.03 -23.69
2 Onion 0.7006 -27.78 -17.67
3 Motor car and 0.4665 -6.91 -7.12
jeep
4 Peas, 0.0516 -7.88 -6.75
chickpeas
5 Air 0.0446 -5.81 -5.06
conditioner
Top 5 key items with high inflation at All India combined level in April, 2026 are given in table below:
S.No. Item Weight Inflation (%) Inflation (%)
March, 2026 April, 2026
1 Silver Jewellery 0.3127 148.42 144.342 Coconut: copra 0.0854 45.54 44.55
3 Gold/Diamond/Platinum 0.6230 45.88 40.72
Jewellery
4 Tomato 0.4961 36.00 35.28
5 Cauliflower 0.2330 34.16 25.58
B. State level Indices
Top five States (having more than 50 lakhs population as per Census 2011) with highest inflation in April,
2026 are given below-
II. March 2026 (Final) figures for CPI base 2024=100
All India CPI, CFPI and corresponding inflation rates for the month of March 2026 (Final) with base year
2024 are given as follows-March, 2026 (Final) at Base 2024=100
Rural Urban Combined
Inflation (%) CPI 3.63 3.11 3.40
(General)
CFPI 3.95 3.71 3.87
Index CPI 105.02 104.62 104.84
(General)
CFPI 104.01 104.38 104.14
Response Rate- Real time price data are collected from selected 1407 urban Markets (including
online markets) and 1465 villages covering all States/UTs through personal visits by field staff of
Field Operations Division of NSO, MoSPI on a weekly roster. During the month of April, 2026,
prices were collected from 100% rural and urban markets while the market-wise prices reported
therein were 99.44% for rural markets and 99.82% for urban markets.
CPI for May 2026 will be released on 12th June, 2026 (Friday) or the next working day in case
of 12th being a holiday.
State and Item wise indices for April 2026 may be downloaded from eSankhyiki portal of
MoSPI- https://esankhyiki.mospi.gov.in/
State-level item indices, available on the portal, should be interpreted cautiously in view of thin
samples of price used for index compilation in some of the cases.
Indices at all levels and inflation rates are compiled using the actual index values without
rounding off. However, the indices published are rounded off to two decimal places. Therefore,
higher-level indices, if calculated from the published figures may observe minute differences.
III.
IV. Annexures
Annexure Title
I All India General (Rural, Urban and Combined) division wise indices and inflation for
April, 2026 (Provisional)II All India General (Rural, Urban and Combined) group wise indices and inflation for
April, 2026 (Provisional)
III State/UT wise general index and inflation in April, 2026 (Provisional)
IV All India Combined (General) level index and inflation
Annexure- I
All India General (Rural, Urban and Combined) division wise indices and inflation for April, 2026
(Provisional)
Division Division name Index Inflation
code
Rural Urban Comb. Rural Urban Comb.
(i) (ii) (iii) (iv) (v) (vi) (vii) (viii)
01 Food and beverages 104.16 104.69 104.35 4.09 3.88 4.01
02 Paan, tobacco and intoxicants 107.21 107.30 107.24 4.65 5.02 4.76
03 Clothing and footwear 107.63 105.55 106.84 3.27 2.04 2.80
04 Housing, water, electricity, gas 103.22 102.61 102.83 1.77 1.67 1.71
and other fuels
05 Furnishings, household 104.04 103.43 103.78 1.87 1.27 1.61
equipment and routine
household maintenance
06 Health 103.90 104.56 104.15 1.57 1.77 1.64
07 Transport 100.89 100.78 100.84 0.01 -0.04 -0.01
08 Information and 103.95 103.29 103.66 0.64 0.33 0.50
communication
09 Recreation, sport and culture 104.44 103.86 104.15 2.39 1.84 2.11
10 Education services 105.29 106.34 105.93 2.92 3.30 3.1511 Restaurants and 107.27 108.60 107.98 3.84 4.51 4.20
accommodation services
13 Personal care, social 124.83 122.95 124.02 18.51 16.55 17.66
protection and miscellaneous
goods and services
All India 105.28 104.92 105.12 3.74 3.16 3.48
Note: Comb.: Combined
Annexure- II
All India General (Rural, Urban and Combined) group wise indices and inflation for April, 2026
(provisional)
S.No. Group Group name Index Inflation
code
Rural Urban Comb. Rural Urban Comb.
(i) (ii) (iii) (iv) (v) (vi) (vii) (viii) (ix)
1. 01.1 Food 104.17 104.78 104.39 4.26 4.10 4.20
2. 01.2 Beverages 103.56 103.12 103.36 0.62 0.29 0.48
3. 01.3 Services for processing 106.96 107.35 107.07 3.09 3.55 3.23
primary goods for food
4. 02.1 Alcoholic beverages 106.71 105.82 106.42 3.46 2.89 3.27
5. 02.3 Paan and tobacco 107.66 108.85 108.01 5.72 7.28 6.18
6. 03.1 Clothing 108.14 106.20 107.40 3.66 2.58 3.25
7. 03.2 Footwear 104.30 101.44 103.17 0.65 -1.34 -0.12
8. 04.1 Actual rental payments 103.35 102.88 102.99 2.45 1.92 2.04
made for housing
9. 04.3 Maintenance, repair and 106.14 105.31 105.83 3.45 3.00 3.28
security of the dwellingS.No. Group Group name Index Inflation
code
Rural Urban Comb. Rural Urban Comb.
10. 04.4 Water supply and 101.56 102.43 102.17 1.10 1.54 1.40
miscellaneous services
relating to the dwelling
11. 04.5 Electricity, gas and other 102.48 100.98 101.89 0.88 0.41 0.69
fuels
12. 05.1 Furniture, furnishings, and 105.87 104.86 105.48 2.75 2.17 2.53
loose carpets
13. 05.2 Household textiles 106.49 104.34 105.68 3.01 1.07 2.28
14. 05.3 Household appliances 103.07 101.50 102.34 1.15 -0.22 0.51
15. 05.4 Glassware, tableware and 107.61 105.73 106.89 4.06 2.47 3.46
household utensils
16. 05.5 Tools and equipment for 98.67 99.47 98.94 -1.60 0.02 -1.07
house and garden
17. 05.6 Goods and services for 103.17 103.57 103.35 1.50 1.51 1.50
routine household
maintenance
18. 06.1 Medicines and health 104.80 104.67 104.75 1.98 1.40 1.76
products
19. 06.2 Outpatient care services 101.88 104.39 102.90 0.64 2.39 1.36
20. 06.3 Inpatient care services 102.72 105.45 103.86 0.87 3.22 1.85
21. 06.4 Other health services 102.49 103.36 102.82 1.02 1.62 1.25
22. 07.1 Purchase of vehicles 97.89 97.07 97.47 -4.66 -4.96 -4.81
23. 07.2 Operation of personal 100.08 100.08 100.08 0.13 0.12 0.12
transport equipment
24. 07.3 Passenger transport 103.54 104.29 103.86 1.64 2.31 1.92
servicesS.No. Group Group name Index Inflation
code
Rural Urban Comb. Rural Urban Comb.
25. 07.4 Transport services for 107.71 107.81 107.77 7.50 7.66 7.60
goods
26. 08.1 Information and 99.23 98.22 98.77 -0.25 -1.14 -0.66
communication equipment
27. 08.3 Information and 105.21 104.79 105.03 0.86 0.75 0.81
communication services
28. 09.1 Recreational durables 98.97 100.68 100.17 0.50 0.15 0.25
29. 09.2 Other recreational goods 105.62 105.58 105.61 2.75 2.54 2.67
30. 09.3 Garden products and pets 111.61 110.72 111.14 6.46 5.43 5.90
31. 09.4 Recreational services 105.94 102.11 103.64 4.26 1.09 2.36
(i) (ii) (iii) (iv) (v) (vi) (vii) (viii) (ix)
32. 09.5 Cultural goods 102.58 104.68 103.62 1.39 2.01 1.70
33. 09.6 Cultural services 103.85 104.30 104.13 2.01 1.46 1.67
34. 09.7 Newspapers, books and 102.68 102.67 102.68 1.14 1.33 1.23
stationery
35. 10.1 Early childhood and 106.90 106.82 106.85 3.81 3.01 3.31
primary education
36. 10.2 Secondary education 106.14 107.69 107.13 3.39 4.17 3.89
37. 10.4 Higher education 102.45 105.98 104.74 1.61 4.85 3.71
38. 10.5 Education not defined by 103.31 103.57 103.44 1.66 1.55 1.61
level
39. 11.1 Food and beverage serving 107.31 108.61 108.00 3.86 4.52 4.21
services
40. 11.2 Accommodation services 102.50 104.79 103.53 1.13 2.26 1.64S.No. Group Group name Index Inflation
code
Rural Urban Comb. Rural Urban Comb.
41. 13.1 Personal care 105.02 105.55 105.25 2.53 2.64 2.58
42. 13.2 Other personal effects 178.10 167.50 173.40 57.26 48.98 53.61
43. 13.9 Other services 103.02 102.23 102.71 1.57 1.10 1.39
Note: Comb.: Combined
Annexure-III
State/UT wise general index and inflation in April, 2026 (Provisional)
S.No. CPI Inflation
State/UT
Rural Urban Combined Rural Urban Combined
(i) (ii) (iii) (iv) (v) (vi) (vii) (viii)
1. Andaman And 106.83 105.07 105.97 3.79 2.66 3.24
Nicobar Islands
2. Andhra Pradesh 104.92 105.32 105.08 4.29 4.06 4.20
3. Arunachal Pradesh 103.38 103.49 103.41 2.12 1.95 2.07
4. Assam 104.33 103.40 104.13 3.43 2.41 3.22
5. Bihar 104.17 103.09 104.01 2.88 1.87 2.74
6. Chandigarh * 104.97 104.97 * 3.52 3.52
7. Chhattisgarh 101.77 102.00 101.85 1.89 1.53 1.77
8. Goa 104.07 104.40 104.28 1.68 2.49 2.20
9. Gujarat 104.19 103.86 104.00 3.22 2.60 2.85
10. Haryana 105.33 104.91 105.12 3.32 2.61 2.96
11. Himachal Pradesh 105.32 106.31 105.48 3.58 4.15 3.6712. Jammu And 105.60 104.89 105.40 2.64 2.74 2.67
Kashmir
13. Jharkhand 104.28 102.83 103.78 3.30 2.05 2.88
14. Karnataka 106.63 105.84 106.23 4.24 3.77 4.00
15. Kerala 106.78 105.48 106.07 4.32 3.32 3.77
16. Ladakh 105.69 105.79 105.71 1.95 2.24 2.02
17. Lakshadweep 104.76 105.99 105.65 2.79 3.65 3.42
18. Madhya Pradesh 105.47 105.04 105.30 3.80 3.47 3.67
19. Maharashtra 105.50 104.66 104.99 3.72 2.75 3.13
20. Manipur 102.83 103.73 103.12 2.40 2.19 2.33
21. Meghalaya 104.97 103.63 104.62 3.31 2.00 2.97
22. Mizoram 103.56 102.30 102.84 1.02 0.44 0.69
23. Nagaland 106.17 103.86 105.29 3.75 3.00 3.46
24. NCT of Delhi 102.37 103.23 103.22 2.71 1.95 1.96
25. Odisha 104.07 103.74 103.98 3.64 2.89 3.44
26. Puducherry 106.28 105.90 106.02 4.71 4.27 4.41
27. Punjab 106.25 105.09 105.72 3.57 2.99 3.30
28. Rajasthan 105.74 105.19 105.54 4.03 3.29 3.77
29. Sikkim 106.62 106.11 106.45 4.29 3.90 4.16
30. Tamil Nadu 105.78 105.84 105.81 4.41 4.00 4.18
31. Telangana 108.21 107.78 107.96 6.23 5.51 5.81
32. The Dadra And 103.76 104.66 104.44 2.90 3.45 3.31
Nagar Haveli And
Daman And Diu33. Tripura 102.63 102.86 102.68 2.17 2.90 2.34
34. Uttar Pradesh 105.55 105.02 105.38 3.83 3.08 3.59
35. Uttarakhand 106.69 104.50 105.88 3.98 2.66 3.50
36. West Bengal 104.33 104.16 104.26 3.36 2.45 2.95
*: No rural market in Chandigarh
Annexure-IV
All India Combined (General) level index and inflation
Month Index Inflation (%)
Rural Urban Combined Rural Urban Combined
(i) (ii) (iii) (iv) (v) (vi) (vii)
Jan-25 101.81 101.49 101.67
Feb-25 101.33 101.30 101.32
Mar-25 101.34 101.47 101.39
Apr-25 101.49 101.71 101.58
May-25 101.78 102.06 101.90
Jun-25 102.39 102.66 102.51
Jul-25 103.34 103.36 103.35
Aug-25 103.84 103.60 103.74
Sep-25 103.80 103.66 103.74
Oct-25 103.85 103.61 103.74
Nov-25 104.16 103.83 104.01
Dec-25 104.19 103.98 104.10
Jan-26 104.59 104.28 104.45 2.73 2.75 2.74Feb-26 104.74 104.36 104.57 3.37 3.02 3.21
Mar-26 105.02 104.62 104.84 3.63 3.11 3.40
Apr-26* 105.28 104.92 105.12 3.74 3.16 3.48
*Index and Inflation for the month of April 2026 are provisional.
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