India’s inflation in April rises for sixth straight month, but undershoots estimates

A customer hands over a pineapple to a vendor at a roadside shop decorated with plastic Vishu Konna flowers (scientific name: Cassia fistula) ahead of the Vishu festival in Kochi, India, on April 14, 2026. Nurphoto | Nurphoto | India's consumer price inflation in April rose for the sixth straight month to 3.48% from 3.40% in March, even as the government kept prices at the pump steady to shield consumers from rising global oil prices. The headline inflation number was below economists' expectations for a 3.80% rise in the consumer price index, as per a Reuters poll. Food inflation, a key constituent of the country's consumer price index, hit 4.2%, up from 3.87% in March, India's Ministry of Statistics and Program Implementation said in a release . The latest inflation reading may matter less than its trajectory, Duvvuri Subbarao, former governor of the Reserve Bank of India, told CNBC's Inside India on Tuesday. "If inflation persists long enough, inflation expectations harden, and it can morph what is today a supply shock into a demand shock," he said. That would be of "particular concern to the RBI," Subbarao added. India, the world's fastest-growing major economy, is among the countries most vulnerable to the supply disruptions caused by the Iran war. The South Asian country imports nearly 85% of its fuel needs and relies on the Strait of Hormuz for about 50% of its crude imports, 60% of its liquefied natural gas, and almost all of its liquefied petroleum gas supplies. …