CPI Jumps on Precious Metals Spike with Headline at 2.75% in January 2026

18 Feb 2026 , 02:15 PM

India has introduced a new CPI (Consumer Price Index) series to better reflect how people are spending money after COVID. This new index uses 2024 as the base year. In January 2026, inflation increased to 2.75%, up from 0.68% in December 2025. Before this, inflation had been falling for many months.  The main reason for the sudden rise in inflation was a huge increase in the price of gold and silver jewellery, which went up sharply. Other important categories like food, housing, and transport stayed fairly stable.

So, overall inflation increased mainly because of expensive gold and silver not because everything became expensive.

 

Figure: CPI – A 3-year history

Source: MOSPI

date	YoY (%)
Dec-2024	5.22
Jan-2025	4.26
Feb-2025	3.61
Mar-2025	3.34
Apr-2025	3.16
May-2025	2.82
Jun-2025	2.1
Jul-2025	1.61
Aug-2025	2.07
Sep-2025	1.44
Oct-2025	0.25
Nov-2025	0.71
Dec-2025	0.68
Jan-2026	2.75

 

Figure: CPI – Components

date	Category	YoY (%)
Jan-2026	Food and beverages	2.11
Jan-2026	Paan, tobacco and intoxicants	2.86
Jan-2026	Clothing and footwear	2.98
Jan-2026	Housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels	1.53
Jan-2026	Furnishings, household equipment and routine household maintenance	1.45
Jan-2026	Health	2.19
Jan-2026	Transport	0.09
Jan-2026	Information and communication	0.16
Jan-2026	Recreation, sport and culture	2.32
Jan-2026	Education services	3.35
Jan-2026	Restaurants and accommodation services	2.87
Jan-2026	Personal care, social protection and miscellaneous goods and services	19.02

Source: MOSPI

 

CPI.Food – Food Inflation Rebounds into Positive Territory After Prolonged Deflation

Food prices had been falling for many months in 2025. In October 2025, food prices were falling sharply. But in January 2026, food inflation turned positive again and rose to 2.13%. This means food prices have started increasing again, but at a moderate and controlled level.

Prices of: Food items, Food processing services, Beverages, etc. all increased slightly.

However, the rise is not extreme compared to the big price swings seen in 2024.

Figure: CPI.Food – A 3-year history

Source: MOSPI

 

date	YoY (%)
Dec-2024	7.69
Jan-2025	5.68
Feb-2025	3.84
Mar-2025	2.88
Apr-2025	2.14
May-2025	1.5
Jun-2025	-0.15
Jul-2025	-0.84
Aug-2025	0.05
Sep-2025	-1.37
Oct-2025	-3.72
Nov-2025	-2.78
Dec-2025	-2.5
Jan-2026	2.13

 

Figure: CPI.Food – Components

date	Category	YoY (%)
Jan-2026	Food	2.13
Jan-2026	Beverages	1.56
Jan-2026	Services for processing primary goods for food	3.42

Source: MOSPI

 

Top Inflationary & Deflationary Items (YoY)

Top Gainers (Inflation)

Category	Value (%)	Context
Other personal effects (Gold/Jewellery)	59.23	Reclassification & Price Spike
Garden products and pets	8.54	Modern Consumption Shift
Transport services for goods	7.48	Rising Logistics costs
Secondary education	4.14	Service Inflation
Higher education	3.59	Service Inflation

 

Top Losers (Deflation)

Category	Value (%)	Context
Purchase of vehicles	-4.53	Automotive Sector Cooling
Info & Comm Equipment	-2.31	Consistent Tech Deflation
Insurance & Financial Services	-1.91	Lower Premium Costs
Cultural services	-0.58	Marginal Price Easing

 

Other personal effects (Gold and Silver jewellery) remained a clear outlier with a sharp 59.23% YoY surge. Additional inflationary pressures were visible in garden products and pets (8.54%) and transport services for goods (7.48%), reflecting rising logistics and shifting consumption trends. Service-oriented segments such as secondary education (4.14%) and higher education (3.59%) also recorded steady price growth during the period.

On the deflationary side, the purchase of vehicles declined by 4.53% YoY, signalling continued softness in the automotive sector. Information and communication equipment (-2.31%), insurance and financial services (-1.91%), and cultural services (-0.58%) also remained in negative territory, indicating selective price moderation across discretionary and technology-linked categories.