Prices in 2025-26 are 4.3 times what they were in 2000-01. A hundred-rupee note from then now buys what ₹23 did, and what cost ₹100 then costs about ₹429.
is what the same things cost in 2025-26. Prices are 4.3 times what they were in 2000-01.
of what ₹100 bought in 2000-01. The rest has been eaten by inflation.
Inflation peaked in 1974-75, in the wake of the first oil shock.
Prices rose by an average of 9.1% a year from 1991-92 to 2000-01, the fastest of any decade here.
The latest year, 2025-26, is the lowest since 1990-91.
Inflation is the average rise in what households pay. Your own basket may have risen faster (school fees, medicine) or slower (phones, some clothing). The compounding is the part to notice: even 5% a year halves buying power in fourteen years.
The figures are the World Bank's annual average inflation for India by financial year, from its World Development Indicators. India changed the price index it uses over these decades, from the index for industrial workers to the combined consumer price index that began in 2011, so treat the long run as a guide rather than a rupee-exact ledger. The atlas's CPI page carries the official monthly series, each base kept separate.
Wages matter as much as prices. If your income grew faster than inflation your buying power rose even as the rupee lost value; the real repo rate and unemployment pages in the atlas show the other side of that story.