Press Release of Consumer Price Index on Base 2024=100 for August, 2026

Key Highlights:

• Retail inflation, based on the Consumer Price Index (CPI) with base year 2024=100, stood at 4.82% in August 2026.
• Year-on-year food inflation, measured by the Consumer Food Price Index (CFPI), was 5.95% for August 2026.
• Rural CPI inflation was 5.23%, while urban CPI inflation was 4.31% in August 2026.
• The National Statistical Office (NSO), under the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI), collects real-time price data.

Detailed Insights:

• The provisional CPI for August 2026 shows a slight increase from the final July 2026 combined inflation rate of 4.45%.
• Food inflation also saw an increase from 5.52% in July 2026 to 5.95% in August 2026.
• Key items with high inflation in August 2026 included Silver Jewellery (107.11%), Ginger (73.82%), and Onion (48.27%).
• Items showing low or negative inflation included Tomato (-31.09%), Potato (-13.14%), and Motor car and jeep (-6.72%).
• Data collection for the CPI involves weekly visits to 1407 urban markets (including online) and 1465 villages across all States/UTs.
• The response rate for data collection was 100% in both rural and urban markets during August 2026.

Key Concepts Involved:

• Consumer Price Index (CPI): A measure that examines the weighted average of prices of a basket of consumer goods and services, used to gauge inflation.
• Consumer Food Price Index (CFPI): A sub-index of the CPI that specifically measures the changes in retail prices of food items.
• Base Year: The reference year for an index, set to 100, against which price changes in other years are measured.
• National Statistical Office (NSO): The central statistical agency of India responsible for conducting large-scale sample surveys and compiling national accounts.