RBI working paper fills the pandemic gap in State-level inflation data using household survey responses
10 October 2026
The Reserve Bank of India released Working Paper No. 01/2026, titled 'Data Gaps in State-Level Inflation: An Assessment for the Covid Period', on October 9, 2026.
It is written by Purnima Shaw and R. K. Sinha.
Official State-wise CPI inflation data are missing for four pandemic months, namely April and May 2020 and April and May 2021.
The authors use the granular data of the Reserve Bank's Inflation Expectations Survey of Households, which continued on a bimonthly basis during the pandemic, to estimate State-wise CPI-U inflation for those four months.
The estimates combine urban consumers' inflation perceptions, their three-months-ahead inflation expectations and past realised State-wise CPI-U inflation.
When aggregated, the State-wise estimates closely follow the all-India official CPI inflation series.
The paper argues that such estimates can support future research using State-level inflation time series, since State-wise inflation data matter under India's inflation-targeting framework.
In plain words
CPI Consumer Price Index — The retail price index whose combined all-India inflation rate is the Reserve Bank's nominal anchor under inflation targeting.
IESH Inflation Expectations Survey of Households — A bimonthly Reserve Bank survey of urban households on their perception of current inflation and their expectations for the months ahead.