Think of the apple seller who sits outside your building every single morning. Last year a kilo cost you Rs 100, and this year the same kilo costs Rs 104.82, though the apples look exactly the same. Your salary did not change overnight, so your money quietly bought a little less, and that slow shrinking of what a rupee can buy is called inflation, which India measures through the Consumer Price Index (CPI).<\/p>
On 7 October 2026, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) raised the repo rate by 25 basis points to 5.50%, its first increase since early 2023. The reason sits in the CPI number for August 2026, which came in at 4.82%. Here is how that single figure ends up deciding what happens to your loan EMI and your fixed deposit over the coming months.<\/p>
The Consumer Price Index tracks the average change in prices of a fixed basket of goods and services that households buy, such as food, fuel, rent, clothing and medical care. India’s statistics ministry, MoSPI, publishes it every month, so the figure you read in the news is always a fresh snapshot. A CPI of 4.82% simply means that the same basket of goods and services cost 4.82% more than it did a year earlier.<\/p>
Think of it as a giant shopping list that statisticians price every month, in villages and in cities, before comparing it with the same month last year. Food carries a heavy weight because Indian families spend a large share of their budget on it, and in August 2026 food inflation was 5.95%. Rural inflation stood at 5.23% against 4.31% in urban areas, so the same month felt different depending on where you shop.<\/p>
MoSPI released this August reading on 14 September 2026 as a provisional figure on a new base year of 2024. <\/p>
CPI has risen steadily over the last four months, and notice that the August reading is the highest of the four, which is exactly the kind of upward drift a central bank watches closely.<\/p>