RAS question
What percentage of the CPI basket is accounted for by food and fuel combined, according to the Economic Survey 2025-26?
Correct answer: (A) 52.7%.
According to the Economic Survey 2025-26, food and fuel together account for 52.7% of India's Consumer Price Index basket.
Explanation
The key point is the weight of volatile essentials in the CPI basket. The PIB release on the Economic Survey 2025-26 states that the moderation in retail inflation was primarily linked to a general disinflationary trend in food and fuel prices, and that these two groups together account for 52.7% of India's CPI basket. That large combined weight explains why favourable weather conditions, higher production and lower food prices could pull headline inflation down sharply, with the April-December 2025 average at 1.7%. In other words, the answer is not just a memorised percentage: it shows why movement in food and fuel prices has an outsized effect on headline CPI.
Why the other options are wrong
- (B) 45.1% understates the combined CPI weight because the cited Economic Survey release gives food and fuel together as 52.7%.
- (C) 39.4% is too low for the food-plus-fuel share and would not match the Survey's explanation of why disinflation in these items strongly affected headline CPI.
- (D) 60.3% overstates the combined share; the official PIB summary of the Economic Survey fixes the figure at 52.7%.
Concept
This tests inflation measurement in Indian Economy, especially how CPI weights shape headline inflation. RAS repeatedly asks such questions because Economic Survey data links static concepts like CPI composition with current macroeconomic outcomes.