Retail inflation reached 5.54% in September, onion prices doubled; More casualties in villages than in cities

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Retail inflation in the country increased further in September. On Monday, the Ministry of Statistics and Program Implementation (MoSPI) released its figures. According to them, the retail inflation rate in September 2026 was 5.54 percent, whereas in August it was 4.83 percent. That means the inflation rate increased by 71 basis points in a month.

This is the highest inflation rate so far this year. It was only 2.74 percent in January and has gone up every month since then. The ministry has clarified that these figures are still provisional. These are based on the Consumer Price Index (CPI), with the base year being 2024.

Food and drinks increased the difficulty

The biggest reason for increase in inflation was food items. According to the Consumer Food Price Index (CFPI), food inflation stood at 7.74 percent in September. In August it was 5.97 percent, which means there was a jump of 1.77 percentage points in a single month.

Onion made me cry the most among the vegetables. Onion prices in September were 108.09 percent higher than last year. This increase in August was 48.78 percent. This means that within a month the inflation rate of onion has more than doubled.

The rest of the kitchen spices were also not cheap. Ginger prices increased by 62.85 percent on an annual basis, although in August it was 73.82 percent, which means there was a slight softening. The garlic went in the opposite direction. Its inflation increased from 43.60 percent to 54.62 percent. Lemon also became costlier by 36.41 percent.

However, not everything turned out to be expensive. The prices of some vegetables remained lower than a year ago. Potato became cheaper by 11.50 percent and tomato by 8.62 percent. Bhindi prices fell by 4.48 percent and coconut prices fell by 3.99 percent. Among non-food items, inflation of silver jewelery stood at 87.80 percent. In August it was 106.81 percent, which means there was some relief in it.

more impact on villages

Inflation in rural areas was higher than in cities. Retail inflation in villages increased from 5.24 percent to 6.08 percent. In cities it increased from 4.31 percent to 4.88 percent.

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Same was the situation with food items also. Food inflation in villages increased from 6.17 percent to 8.06 percent, while in cities it increased from 5.64 percent to 7.18 percent. The gap between village and city inflation increased from 0.93 percentage points in August to 1.20 percentage points in September.

how much inflation in what

If we look at the major categories of CPI, inflation was highest in personal care, social security and miscellaneous goods and services, at 13.75 percent. In restaurants and accommodation services it was 9.36 percent, while in food and beverages it was 7.36 percent.

Inflation in transport stood at 5.01 percent. It was 4.80 percent in paan, tobacco and intoxicants, 3.94 percent in education services and 3.93 percent in clothes, shoes and slippers. The lowest inflation was in health, only 1.40 percent.

Tamil Nadu is at the forefront

Inflation was highest in Tamil Nadu among states with population of more than five million (50 lakh). There it was recorded at 6.81 percent in September. It was followed by Odisha (6.70 percent), Madhya Pradesh (6.68 percent), Telangana (6.64 percent) and Andhra Pradesh (6.29 percent).

Tamil Nadu also remained first in food inflation, where it was 10.62 percent. In this case, Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, Karnataka and Maharashtra were also included in the top five states.

Talking about other big states, inflation in Uttar Pradesh was 6.08 percent. Karnataka recorded 5.86 percent, Rajasthan 5.71 percent and Maharashtra 5.18 percent.

How were the data collected?

These September figures have been prepared on the basis of prices collected from 1,407 urban markets and 1,465 villages across the country. According to the ministry, the rate of receiving information from both urban and rural markets was 100 percent in September. Inflation data for October 2026 will be released on November 12.