Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation of the Republic of India

04/13/2026 | Press release | Distributed by Public on 04/13/2026 04:38

PRESS RELEASE OF CONSUMER PRICE INDEX ON BASE 2024=100 FOR MARCH, 2026

Ministry of Statistics & Programme Implementation

PRESS RELEASE OF CONSUMER PRICE INDEX ON BASE 2024=100 FOR MARCH, 2026

Posted On: 13 APR 2026 4:00PM by PIB Delhi
  1. Key Statistics
  1. National Level Indices
    • Year-on-year inflation rate based on All India Consumer Price Index (CPI) with base year 2024 for the month of March, 2026 over March, 2025 is 3.40%(Provisional). Corresponding inflation rates for rural and urban are 3.63% and 3.11%, respectively.

March, 2026 (Provisional)

February, 2026 (Final)

Rural

Urban

Combined

Rural

Urban

Combined

Inflation (%)

CPI (General)

3.63

3.11

3.40

3.37

3.02

3.21

CFPI

3.96

3.71

3.87

3.46

3.48

3.47

Index

CPI (General)

105.01

104.62

104.84

104.74

104.36

104.57

CFPI

104.01

104.38

104.14

103.79

104.04

103.88

  • Food Inflation: - Year-on-year inflation rate based on All India Consumer Food Price Index (CFPI) for the month of March, 2026 over March, 2025 is 3.87% (Provisional). Corresponding inflation rates for rural and urban are 3.96% and 3.71%, respectively.
    • Housing Inflation: - Year-on-year Housing inflation rate for the month of March, 2026 is 2.11% (Provisional) and the corresponding inflation rates for rural and urban are 2.54% and 1.95%, respectively.
    • At National level, division wise inflation for the month of March, 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 March, 2026 are given in table below:

S.No.

Item

Weight

Inflation (%)

February, 2026

Inflation (%)

March, 2026

1

Onion

0.7006

-28.20

-27.76

2

Potato

0.7549

-18.47

-18.98

3

Garlic

0.3738

-31.10

-10.18

4

Arhar, Tur

0.5333

-16.00

-9.56

5

Peas, chickpeas

0.0516

-8.26

-7.87

  • Top 5 key items with high inflation at All India combined level in March, 2026 are given in table below:

S.No.

Item

Weight

Inflation (%)

February, 2026

Inflation (%)

March, 2026

1

Silver Jewellery

0.3127

160.88

148.61

2

Gold/Diamond/Platinum Jewellery

0.6230

48.17

45.92

3

Coconut: copra

0.0854

46.16

45.52

4

Tomato

0.4961

45.18

35.99

5

Cauliflower

0.2330

43.76

34.11

  1. State level Indices

Top five States (having more than 50 lakhs population as per Census 2011) with highest inflation in March, 2026 are given below-

  1. February 2026 (Final) figures for CPI base 2024=100

All India CPI, CFPI and corresponding inflation rates for the month of February 2026 (Final) with base year 2024 are given as follows-

February, 2026 (Final) at Base 2024=100

Rural

Urban

Combined

Inflation (%)

CPI (General)

3.37

3.02

3.21

CFPI

3.46

3.48

3.47

Index

CPI (General)

104.74

104.36

104.57

CFPI

103.79

104.04

103.88

  1. 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 March, 2026, prices were collected from 100% rural and urban markets while the market-wise prices reported therein were 99.93% for rural markets and 100% for urban markets.

    CPI for April 2026 will be released on 12th May, 2026 (Tuesday) or the next working day in case of 12th being a holiday.

    State and Item wise indices for March 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. However, the indices published are rounded to two decimal places. Therefore, higher-level indices, if calculated from the published indices may not match exactly.

IV. Annexures

Annexure

Title

I

All India General (Rural, Urban and Combined) division wise indices and inflation for March, 2026 (Provisional)

II

All India General (Rural, Urban and Combined) group wise indices and inflation for March, 2026 (Provisional)

III

State wise general index and inflation in March, 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 March, 2026 (Provisional)

Division code

Division name

Index

Inflation

Rural

Urban

Comb.

Rural

Urban

Comb.

01

Food and beverages

104.00

104.31

104.12

3.81

3.53

3.71

02

Paan, tobacco and intoxicants

106.30

106.41

106.33

4.15

4.42

4.23

03

Clothing and footwear

107.12

105.19

106.39

3.17

2.06

2.75

04

Housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels

103.07

102.46

102.69

2.14

1.87

1.97

05

Furnishings, household equipment and routine household maintenance

103.53

103.03

103.32

1.60

1.11

1.39

06

Health

103.75

104.43

104.01

1.65

1.92

1.75

07

Transport

100.76

100.69

100.73

0.01

-0.01

0.00

08

Information and communication

103.74

103.13

103.47

0.44

0.19

0.33

09

Recreation, sport and culture

104.06

104.19

104.13

2.08

2.49

2.28

10

Education services

104.79

105.83

105.42

2.95

3.53

3.30

11

Restaurants and accommodation services

105.52

107.06

106.34

2.36

3.35

2.88

13

Personal care, social protection and miscellaneous goods and services

124.91

123.11

124.13

19.55

17.46

18.65

All India

105.01

104.62

104.84

3.63

3.11

3.40

Note: Comb.: Combined

Annexure- II

All India General (Rural, Urban and Combined) group wise indices and inflation for March, 2026 (Provisional)

Group code

Group name

Index

Inflation

Rural

Urban

Comb.

Rural

Urban

Comb.

01.1

Food

104.01

104.38

104.14

3.96

3.71

3.87

01.2

Beverages

103.47

103.11

103.31

0.82

0.63

0.74

01.3

Services for processing primary goods for food

106.55

106.95

106.67

2.88

3.53

3.07

02.1

Alcoholic beverages

106.07

105.39

105.85

3.37

2.79

3.18

02.3

Paan and tobacco

106.50

107.47

106.78

4.84

6.14

5.22

03.1

Clothing

107.63

105.84

106.95

3.59

2.61

3.22

03.2

Footwear

103.78

101.12

102.74

0.41

-1.43

-0.31

04.1

Actual rental payments made for housing

103.10

102.67

102.77

2.36

1.90

2.00

04.3

Maintenance, repair and security of the dwelling

105.68

104.99

105.43

3.30

3.07

3.22

04.4

Water supply and miscellaneous services relating to the dwelling

100.94

102.33

101.91

0.57

1.64

1.31

04.5

Electricity, gas and other fuels

102.49

101.14

101.96

1.73

1.53

1.65

05.1

Furniture, furnishings, and loose carpets

105.23

104.30

104.88

2.47

1.84

2.23

05.2

Household textiles

106.15

103.97

105.33

2.90

0.99

2.18

05.3

Household appliances

101.95

100.75

101.39

0.43

-0.69

-0.09

05.4

Glassware, tableware and household utensils

106.59

105.10

106.02

3.48

2.06

2.94

05.5

Tools and equipment for house and garden

98.67

99.17

98.83

-1.85

-0.39

-1.37

05.6

Goods and services for routine household maintenance

102.94

103.36

103.13

1.45

1.54

1.49

06.1

Medicines and health products

104.65

104.58

104.62

2.12

1.62

1.93

06.2

Outpatient care services

101.80

104.24

102.79

0.68

2.42

1.39

06.3

Inpatient care services

102.42

105.23

103.59

0.70

3.32

1.79

06.4

Other health services

102.35

103.19

102.67

1.01

1.63

1.24

07.1

Purchase of vehicles

97.56

96.89

97.22

-4.56

-4.91

-4.74

07.2

Operation of personal transport equipment

100.04

100.06

100.05

0.10

0.11

0.10

07.3

Passenger transport services

103.34

104.12

103.67

1.63

2.44

1.98

07.4

Transport services for goods

107.63

107.76

107.71

7.43

7.62

7.55

08.1

Information and communication equipment

98.40

97.56

98.01

-1.19

-1.89

-1.51

08.3

Information and communication services

105.18

104.78

105.01

0.85

0.78

0.82

09.1

Recreational durables

98.88

100.79

100.22

-0.41

0.49

0.22

09.2

Other recreational goods

105.18

105.13

105.16

2.53

2.35

2.46

09.3

Garden products and pets

114.31

114.15

114.22

7.60

9.25

8.47

09.4

Recreational services

102.84

102.07

102.38

1.57

1.35

1.44

09.5

Cultural goods

102.47

104.38

103.42

1.30

1.74

1.52

09.6

Cultural services

103.43

104.38

104.01

1.80

2.02

1.93

09.7

Newspapers, books and stationery

102.54

102.65

102.59

1.18

1.54

1.34

10.1

Early childhood and primary education

106.17

106.04

106.09

3.74

3.20

3.40

10.2

Secondary education

105.49

107.18

106.56

3.44

4.43

4.07

10.4

Higher education

102.21

105.87

104.58

1.56

4.82

3.67

10.5

Education not defined by level

103.21

103.44

103.32

1.90

2.14

2.02

11.1

Food and beverage serving services

105.54

107.07

106.36

2.37

3.35

2.89

11.2

Accommodation services

102.27

104.70

103.36

0.82

2.48

1.56

13.1

Personal care

104.86

105.39

105.09

2.65

2.78

2.70

13.2

Other personal effects

178.80

168.47

174.23

61.37

52.09

57.26

13.9

Other services

102.87

102.15

102.59

1.54

1.26

1.43

Note: Comb.: Combined

Annexure-III

State wise general index and inflation in March, 2026 (Provisional)

State

CPI

Inflation

Rural

Urban

Combined

Rural

Urban

Combined

Andaman And Nicobar Islands

106.70

104.87

105.80

4.14

2.70

3.44

Andhra Pradesh

104.74

104.94

104.82

4.14

3.91

4.05

Arunachal Pradesh

103.37

103.24

103.33

2.53

1.68

2.31

Assam

104.14

102.86

103.87

3.10

1.78

2.83

Bihar

104.14

102.70

103.93

3.11

1.78

2.92

Chandigarh

--

104.21

104.21

--

3.17

3.17

Chhattisgarh

101.74

101.98

101.82

1.35

1.35

1.35

Goa

103.51

104.05

103.85

1.67

2.52

2.21

Gujarat

104.18

103.83

103.97

3.54

2.74

3.07

Haryana

104.87

104.69

104.78

2.99

2.38

2.68

Himachal Pradesh

104.63

105.65

104.79

2.88

3.93

3.05

Jammu And Kashmir

104.99

104.60

104.88

2.02

2.67

2.20

Jharkhand

104.33

102.58

103.73

3.61

2.07

3.08

Karnataka

106.20

105.43

105.81

4.24

3.68

3.96

Kerala

106.24

104.93

105.51

4.31

3.06

3.62

Ladakh

105.41

105.41

105.41

0.82

1.30

0.94

Lakshadweep

104.41

105.69

105.34

2.69

3.52

3.29

Madhya Pradesh

104.83

104.48

104.69

3.51

3.45

3.49

Maharashtra

105.86

104.62

105.10

4.29

2.89

3.44

Manipur

102.48

103.51

102.81

1.73

2.46

1.96

Meghalaya

104.58

103.17

104.21

3.30

1.99

2.96

Mizoram

103.35

102.16

102.67

1.02

0.40

0.66

Nagaland

106.01

103.47

105.04

3.72

2.44

3.23

NCT of Delhi

101.54

103.23

103.19

1.83

1.86

1.86

Odisha

103.72

103.47

103.65

3.50

2.83

3.32

Puducherry

105.85

105.52

105.62

4.31

4.13

4.18

Punjab

105.59

104.52

105.10

3.21

2.70

2.97

Rajasthan

105.59

104.95

105.36

3.86

3.24

3.64

Sikkim

106.40

105.64

106.14

4.41

4.02

4.28

Tamil Nadu

105.21

105.36

105.29

3.83

3.72

3.77

Telangana

108.15

107.20

107.61

6.64

5.24

5.83

The Dadra And Nagar Haveli And Daman And Diu

103.17

103.96

103.76

3.10

3.22

3.19

Tripura

102.07

102.46

102.16

2.26

2.23

2.25

Uttar Pradesh

105.22

104.86

105.10

3.52

3.25

3.43

Uttarakhand

106.12

104.51

105.53

3.60

2.81

3.31

West Bengal

103.93

103.76

103.85

2.99

2.66

2.84

--: No rural market in Chandigarh

Annexure-IV

All India Combined (General) level index and inflation

Month

Index

Inflation (%)

Rural

Urban

Combined

Rural

Urban

Combined

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

2.74

Feb-26

104.74

104.36

104.57

3.37

3.02

3.21

Mar-26*

105.01

104.62

104.84

3.63

3.11

3.40

*Index and Inflation for the month of March 2026 are provisional.

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***

Samrat/Pranab


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