January retail inflation at 2.75%, under new series

The new series adds aspects such as rural housing, online media service provider, streaming services among others.

As per the previous 2012-base series, the retail inflation stood at 1.33 per cent in December 2025.

In January 2026, inflation rates for rural and urban stood at 2.73 per cent and 2.77 per cent, respectively.

All India Consumer Food Price Index (CFPI) for the month of January 2026 over January, 2025 is 2.13 per cent (Provisional). Corresponding inflation rates for rural and urban are 1.96 per cent and 2.44 per cent, respectively.

Housing inflation rate for January, 2026 is 2.05 per cent (Provisional)and the corresponding inflation rates for rural and urban are 2.39 per cent and 1.92 per cent, respectively.

“The first imprint for January 2026 under the new base (2023-24) stood in line with our expectations,” Paras Jasrai, Associate Director, India Ratings and Research, said.

“The pickup in inflation in January 2026 was on account of food process which turned to an inflationary trajectory. The food inflation stood at 2.1 per cent in January 2026, largely owing to a significant jump in tomato inflation at 64.8 per cent. Prices of other key vegetables such as onion, potato, garlic were in a deflation of 29.3 per cent, 29 per cent and 53.0 per cent respectively in January 2026,” he said.

“Inflation is expected to pick up in the coming quarters, however, it is expected to be within the tolerance band of the Reserve Bank of India’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC). For February 2026, we expect the retail inflation to average 3.2 per cent since the longer period data is not available at present, it is difficult to make any medium-to long-term prediction based on 13 months’ data released at present. Given the stable and controlled inflation so far along with a positive growth outlook owing to the various trade deals that have been signed in the recent timeframe, we expect the MPC to maintain a status quo in the policy rates in the near term,” Jasrai said.

Read more here: https://www.pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=2227012&reg=3&lang=1