India CPI rises to 4.82 percent as onions jump 48 percent

India's consumer price inflation rose to 4.82 percent in August from 4.45 percent in July, the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation said on Monday. The print uses the new CPI series with 2024 as the base year. Rural inflation was 5.23 percent. Urban inflation was 4.31 percent. The all-India index stood at 108.74 against 107.95 in July.

Food inflation, measured by the Consumer Food Price Index, rose to 5.95 percent from 5.52 percent. Rural food inflation was 6.13 percent. Urban food inflation was 5.64 percent. The food index itself moved to 110.71 from 109.39. Those are the numbers that reach kitchen budgets. Headline CPI is still inside the Reserve Bank's 2 to 6 percent band. Food is what voters taste.

The item list is lopsided. Onions were 48.27 percent dearer than in August 2025, up from 22.54 percent year-on-year in July. Garlic rose 43.60 percent. Ginger rose 73.82 percent, down from 83.57 percent in July but still extreme. Silver jewellery was up 107.11 percent and gold, diamond and platinum jewellery 35.53 percent, which tells you more about metal prices than about a thali. Tomatoes were 31.09 percent cheaper than a year earlier. Potatoes were down 13.14 percent. Lady's finger and parwal also recorded declines.

Among broader groups, transport services for goods led at 14.64 percent. Food and beverage serving services were at 8.41 percent. Operation of personal transport equipment was at 7.40 percent. Paan and tobacco was at 7.34 percent. Purchase of vehicles was 4.38 percent cheaper. Recreational durables were down 1.25 percent.

Wholesale inflation moved the other way in scale. The WPI rose to 9.92 percent in August from 9.78 percent in July, according to official figures reported on Monday. Wholesale food inflation accelerated to 7.05 percent from 6.65 percent. Primary articles inflation eased to 7.76 percent from 8.52 percent. Fuel and manufactured products kept the wholesale index near 10 percent. That gap between a 4.82 percent retail print and a 9.92 percent wholesale print is the part of the release that matters for producers. They are still paying last year's shock at the factory gate while the CPI is being held down by a few cheap vegetables and the new base.

The 2024 base year is new enough that year-on-year comparisons need a caution label. The series is internally consistent month to month. Cross-checks against the old 2012-base numbers that households and opposition parties still have in their heads will produce arguments that are really arguments about weights. MoSPI published the August note at 4 pm. That is the print the Monetary Policy Committee will carry into its next meeting.

Onion inflation almost doubling in a month is a procurement and storage story as much as a weather story. Ginger and garlic follow the same thin-market logic: a short crop or a delayed arrival moves the index because the basket still gives them a visible weight. Tomato deflation of 31 percent is the opposite problem, a glut that hurts growers and helps urban consumers. A single CPI number hides that split.

For the RBI the question is whether 4.82 percent is a pause inside the band or the start of a climb toward the top of it. Rural inflation already above 5 percent and wholesale food at 7.05 percent argue for watching the next two vegetable cycles before anyone claims the shock has passed. Gold and silver jewellery in the top-five list are a reminder that the same households facing dearer onions are also watching metal prices that have nothing to do with the monsoon.