Retail inflation, urban (CPI-U)
CPI-U = Consumer Price Index (Urban)- How often
- Every monthWith the CPI: 12th of the following month, 4:00 PM
- Next release
- Mon 14 DecIn 32 days · 4:00 PM
- Base year
- 2024 = 100
October 2026, up from 4.88% in September 2026.
Inside the RBI's 2–6% bandEvents on this chart
Source: NSO, MoSPI, released 12 Nov 2026 · Chart: Clarity UPSC
- Previous
- 4.88%Sep 2026
- Highest
- 8.56%Jan 2014
- Lowest
- 0.88%Oct 2025
Higher than 71% of the 152 readings since Jan 2014.
Story
How fast prices paid by urban households are rising.
What is happening now As of Oct 2026
Urban retail inflation rose to 5.41% in October 2026, from 4.88% in September. It was lower than the rural rate (6.63%) and the Combined Consumer Price Index (CPI) rate (6.09%), which is the one the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) aims to keep within 2–6%. A year earlier, in October 2025, urban inflation was 0.88%, measured on the earlier 2012-base series.
Urban food inflation was 8.68%. In the urban index, restaurant and accommodation services rose 9.90%, while housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels rose 2.41%. On 7 October 2026 the RBI's Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) raised the repo rate by 0.25 percentage point to 5.50%. It expected services and broadly stable jobs to support urban demand.
Why it matters
Urban households spend a larger share of their budget on housing. Housing, water, electricity and household fuels carry 25.00% of the urban weight, against 11.76% in villages. So rent and utility bills shape urban inflation more, and food prices less. Renters, salaried workers and city businesses feel it in their monthly costs.
Urban inflation is part of the Combined Consumer Price Index (CPI), which the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) aims to keep at 4%, within a band of 2–6%. Set beside CPI Rural, it shows whether price pressure is heavier in towns or in villages.
What it is
The Consumer Price Index (CPI) Urban follows the retail prices that urban households pay for a basket of goods and services. The National Statistics Office (NSO) publishes it every month with CPI Rural and CPI Combined. The Combined index is the weighted average of the rural and urban indices.
The current series has base 2024, and its weights come from the Household Consumption Expenditure Survey 2023-24. NSO field staff collect prices every month from 1,395 markets in 434 towns. Twelve online markets in towns of more than 25 lakh people add e-commerce prices, and rents come from 15,715 urban dwellings.
Housing, water, electricity and household fuels carry 25.00% of the urban weight, against 11.76% in CPI Rural, while food and beverages carry 30.25%. Rent and other housing costs therefore count for more in urban inflation, and food prices for less, than in the rural index.
Read this number
- The publisher
- The National Statistics Office is the statistics arm of the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation. It compiles GDP, CPI, IIP and the labour force survey.
- Release rule
- With the CPI: 12th of the following month, 4:00 PM IST; next working day if the 12th is a holiday
Terms on this page (6)
- CPI
- Consumer Price Index
- HCES
- Household Consumption Expenditure Survey
- MoSPI
- Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation
- MPC
- Monetary Policy Committee
- NSO
- National Statistics Office
- RBI
- Reserve Bank of India
History
- 2011The Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) starts the Consumer Price Index (CPI) Rural, Urban and Combined, with base 2010.
- 12 Feb 2015Base revised to 2012 from the January 2015 index, with weights from the 2011-12 consumer expenditure survey.
- 12 Feb 2026New series with base 2024 from January 2026. Weights come from the Household Consumption Expenditure Survey (HCES) 2023-24, and e-commerce prices from 12 large towns are added.
Readings
| Period | Value | Status | Released |
|---|---|---|---|
| Oct 2026 | 5.41% | Provisional | 12 Nov 2026 |
| Sep 2026 | 4.88% | Final | 12 Nov 2026 |
| Aug 2026 | 4.31% | Final | 12 Oct 2026 |
| Jul 2026 | 3.96% | Final | 14 Sep 2026 |
| Jun 2026 | 3.93%revised from 3.92% | Final | 12 Aug 2026 |
| May 2026 | 3.53% | Final | 13 Jul 2026 |
| Apr 2026 | 3.16% | Final | 12 Jun 2026 |
| Mar 2026 | 3.11% | Final | 12 May 2026 |
| Feb 2026 | 3.02% | Final | 13 Apr 2026 |
| Jan 2026 | 2.75%revised from 2.77% | Final | 12 Mar 2026 |
| Dec 2025 | 2.03% | Final | 12 Nov 2026 |
| Nov 2025 | 1.40% | Final | 12 Nov 2026 |
For UPSC
Know that the National Statistics Office (NSO) of the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) publishes the Consumer Price Index (CPI) Urban on base 2024, with weights from the Household Consumption Expenditure Survey (HCES) 2023-24. The 4% inflation target of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) uses the Combined CPI. Housing carries a much larger weight in the urban basket than in the rural one.