Households’ Inflation Expectations Survey

Today, the Reserve Bank released the results of September 2026 round of its bi-monthly Inflation Expectations Survey of Households (IESH) 1 2 . The survey was conducted during September 10-20, 2026, in 19 major cities, with 5,987 responses. Highlights: The current median inflation perception of households increased by 60 basis points (bps) to 8.4 per cent as compared to the previous round [ Charts 1a and 1b ; Table 3 ]. Households’ median inflation expectations for the next three months and one year rose by 70 bps and 60 bps to 9.9 per cent and 10.0 per cent, respectively [ Charts 1a and 1b ; Table 3 ]. The proportion of respondents anticipating a rise in general inflation has inched up for both the time horizons [ Tables 1(a) and 1(b) ]. Note: Please see the excel file for time series data 3 Table 1(a): Product-wise Expectations of Prices for Three Months ahead (Percentage of Respondents) Survey period ended Sep-25 Mar-26 May-26 Jul-26 Sep-26 General Estimate SE Estimate SE Estimate SE Estimate SE Estimate SE Prices will increase 77.8 0.90 81.6 0.90 83.5 0.78 80.7 0.92 81.9 0.90 Price increase more than current rate 51.5 1.20 57.2 1.21 60.4 1.16 57.1 1.21 59.0 1.15 Price increase

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