Northeast CPI April: Sikkim Tops Region with 4.16% Inflation, Mizoram Posts Nation's Lowest at 0.69%

Provisional Consumer Price Index (CPI) data released by the National Statistical Office (NSO) for April 2026, benchmarked to the base year 2024=100, reveals a wide spectrum of inflation experiences across the eight Northeast states of India. While the all-India combined retail inflation rate stands at 3.48% — with rural inflation at 3.74% and urban inflation at 3.16% — the Northeast region tells a more varied story, with Sikkim posting the highest combined inflation in the region and Mizoram recording the lowest consumer price inflation rate in the entire country.

The table below presents the provisional CPI (General) values and year-on-year inflation rates — rural, urban, and combined — for all eight Northeast states. Data was collected by NSO field staff through 100% coverage of rural and urban markets in April 2026 via personal visits to selected villages and urban market centres. State-level indices should be interpreted with caution in cases where thin price samples are used for index compilation.

? Yellow highlight: Highest inflation in region (Sikkim)   ? Green highlight: Lowest inflation in region & nation (Mizoram)

Sikkim and Nagaland Lead Northeast on Consumer Price Inflation

Sikkim recorded the highest combined CPI inflation rate among all Northeast states at 4.16%, with rural inflation at 4.29% and urban inflation at 3.90%. The state also holds the region's highest combined CPI General index value at 106.45, reflecting a significantly elevated price level relative to the 2024 base year compared to its neighbours. Nagaland ranks second in the region with a combined inflation rate of 3.46%, driven by rural inflation of 3.75% — one of the steeper rural price rises among Northeast states. Assam follows at 3.22% combined inflation, with a pronounced rural-urban gap (rural: 3.43%, urban: 2.41%), and Meghalaya recorded a combined rate of 2.97%.

At the national level, Northeast India's Sikkim (4.16%) slots fifth among the highest-inflation states, behind national leader Telangana at 5.81%, Puducherry at 4.41%, Andhra Pradesh at 4.20%, and Tamil Nadu at 4.18%.

Mizoram Records Nation's Lowest Inflation: Combined Rate Just 0.69%

Mizoram stands out not only within the Northeast but across all Indian states and Union Territories as the jurisdiction with the lowest consumer price inflation for April 2026. Its combined CPI inflation rate of just 0.69% is remarkable — underpinned by an urban inflation rate of 0.44%, the lowest urban inflation figure nationally, and a rural inflation rate of 1.02%. Tripura also recorded comparatively subdued CPI inflation at 2.34% combined, with an unusual reversal of the typical rural-urban dynamic: urban inflation in Tripura (2.90%) exceeds rural inflation (2.17%), making it the standout exception to the regional trend. Nationally, other low-inflation states include Chhattisgarh (1.77%), NCT of Delhi (1.96%), and Ladakh (2.02%).

Rural Inflation Outpaces Urban Costs Across Most of Northeast India

A dominant pattern in the April 2026 CPI data is that rural inflation exceeds urban inflation in most Northeast states — consistent with the all-India trend (rural: 3.74% vs. urban: 3.16%). This rural-urban inflation gap is most pronounced in Assam (rural 3.43%, urban 2.41%) and Meghalaya (rural 3.31%, urban 2.00%), suggesting that rural households in these states face comparatively higher retail price pressures. Manipur, Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh, Sikkim, and Mizoram all follow the same pattern. The only exception in the region is Tripura, where urban inflation (2.90%) outpaces rural inflation (2.17%) — a reversal that warrants attention from policymakers monitoring price stability at the sub-national level.