Inflation calculator India, with the inflation rate in India by year

India’s retail inflation was 5.54% in September 2026 (provisional), up from 4.83% in August, by the Consumer Price Index that MoSPI publishes on its new 2024 base. Over the last ten calendar years prices rose 4.7% a year on average, and in 2025 inflation fell to 2.4%, the lowest annual rate since 1976. In money terms, ₹1 lakh in 2010 buys what about ₹2.42 lakh buys in 2026, and ₹1 lakh in 2000 what ₹4.46 lakh buys now. The calculator above gives these figures for any amount and any year since 1960, projects future costs, and shows the real return on an investment after tax and inflation.

How the inflation calculator works

Value by year answers “what is money from year X worth in year Y?”. The calculator builds a price index from India’s official consumer price inflation for every year since 1960 and scales your amount by the change: value in year Y = amount × price level in Y ÷ price level in X. It also shows the total rise in prices and the average yearly rate between the two years.

Future cost applies a rate you choose: future cost = today’s cost × (1 + inflation)^years. At 5% a year, a cost doubles in about 14 years. Real return shows what an investment earns once tax and inflation are taken out: real return = (1 + return after tax) ÷ (1 + inflation) − 1.

Current inflation rate in India

The Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) publishes the Consumer Price Index each month, around the 12th. Its release for September 2026 put retail inflation at 5.54%:

That is the highest rate this year and inside the RBI’s 2% to 6% band. Food prices drove it: the food index was up 7.74%. Month by month on the new base:

Inflation rate in India by year

Annual consumer price inflation for India from the World Bank’s series, which it compiles from the IMF’s International Financial Statistics. Each figure is the change in the average price level of the calendar year:

Last 10 years

Prices rose by 4.7% a year on average over these ten years, with the highest rate (6.7%) in 2022 and the lowest (2.4%) in 2025.

Every year since 1960

The World Bank publishes this as one series from the IMF’s statistics, so its figure for a year can differ slightly from one quoted by MoSPI, and from figures for financial years (April to March).

What money from past years is worth today

₹1 lakh from each year, in 2026 money (2026 at its January–September price level):

Inflation meaning

Inflation is the rate at which prices in general rise, so that each rupee buys a little less than it did. It is measured by tracking the price of a fixed basket of goods and services over time. If the basket cost ₹100 last year and ₹105 now, inflation is 5%. The opposite, a fall in the general price level, is deflation; India last had it in 1976.

• CPI (Consumer Price Index): retail prices paid by households, compiled by MoSPI for rural, urban and all-India. This is the “headline” inflation figure and the one the RBI targets.
• WPI (Wholesale Price Index): prices at the wholesale level, compiled by the Office of the Economic Adviser in the Ministry of Commerce and Industry.
• Headline vs core: headline inflation covers the whole basket; core inflation leaves out food and fuel, whose prices swing the most, to show the underlying trend.

Types of inflation

• Demand-pull: demand for goods and services runs ahead of what the economy can supply.
• Cost-push: costs of production rise (fuel, wages, raw materials) and firms pass them on.
• Built-in (wage-price spiral): workers expect higher prices and seek higher wages, which push prices up again.
• By speed: creeping (a few percent a year), walking, galloping (double digits) and hyperinflation (prices rising so fast that money loses its use).
• Stagflation: high inflation together with weak growth and rising unemployment.

The RBI’s inflation target

Under section 45ZA of the Reserve Bank of India Act, 1934, the government sets an inflation target every five years, and the RBI’s Monetary Policy Committee sets interest rates to meet it. The current target, renewed in March 2026, is 4% CPI inflation with a tolerance band of 2% to 6%:

Beating inflation: the real return

A return only adds to what you can buy if it beats inflation after tax. A fixed deposit paying 7% to someone in the 30% bracket earns 4.9% after tax; with inflation at September 2026’s 5.54%, that is a real return of -0.6%, so the deposit loses buying power. Use the “Real return” tab for your own numbers. For mutual funds, where gains are taxed only when you sell and at capital-gains rates, the LTCG calculator and the SWP calculator show the tax; the SWP calculator also raises your withdrawal each year to keep up with inflation.

Cost Inflation Index is not the inflation rate

The Cost Inflation Index (CII) used in capital-gains tax is a separate number. The government notifies it each year at 75% of the average rise in the urban consumer price index (section 72 of the Income-tax Act, 2025); for 2026-27 it is 384. It is used to index the cost of property bought before 23 July 2024, and the full table is on our LTCG page.

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