AICPI-IW Monthly Archive

The All-India Consumer Price Index for Industrial Workers (AICPI-IW) is published monthly by the Labour Bureau under the Ministry of Labour & Employment. It tracks retail price inflation faced by industrial worker households across 88 industrially important centres. For Central Government employees, AICPI-IW is the single most consequential statistic published in the country — it drives every six-monthly Dearness Allowance revision.

The current DA stands at 60% of basic pay (effective 1 Jan 2026), and the next revision will be calculated from the 12-month rolling average of AICPI-IW. The most recent reading of 150.8 for May 2026 brings the rolling average to 148.08, suggesting cumulative DA in the region of 63% under the standard formula. See the current DA rate page for the full projection and historical context, or the Expected DA calculator to project the next hike period by period.

How AICPI-IW is measured

AICPI-IW is a retail price index, not a wholesale one — it captures what an industrial worker's household actually pays at the shop for food, fuel, housing, clothing, medical care and transport. Field staff collect prices every month from selected markets in 88 industrially important centres, feeding a fixed consumption basket. Food carries the largest weight, which is why a sharp rise in vegetable, pulse or cooking-oil prices moves the index — and therefore your DA — more than almost anything else.

The current base year is 2016 = 100, adopted in October 2020 in place of the older 2001 = 100 series. To keep the DA formula continuous across that change, a linking factor of 2.88 connects the two series — the same 2.88 you see in the DA equation. So an index of 150.8 today means retail prices for worker households have risen roughly 51% since 2016.

From a monthly reading to your DA

A single month's index does not change your DA. What matters is the 12-month rolling average. Every January and July, the Department of Expenditure averages the preceding twelve readings, applies the 7th CPC formula and rounds down to a whole percent. That averaging is deliberate — it smooths out one-off spikes so DA reflects a sustained change in the cost of living rather than a single bad month for tomatoes. The trade-off is a 4–6 month lag: DA always catches up to inflation a little late, and keeps rising for a while even after inflation cools. For the full worked method, read how DA is calculated.

The same index, two different DA systems

AICPI-IW does double duty. Central Government employees get Central DA (CDA), revised twice a year on the 12-month average described above. But employees of PSUs, public sector banks and Central Public Sector Enterprises get Industrial DA (IDA), revised four times a year on a 3-month average of the very same index. That is why a PSU colleague can quote a different DA percentage in the same month — same data, different averaging. The difference is explained in Industrial DA and CPSE DA.

A short history: from 2001=100 to 2016=100

The index you track today is the third generation of the series. Earlier AICPI-IW used a 2001 = 100 base, and before that 1982 = 100. When consumption patterns shift — more spending on transport and phones, less on grain — the basket has to be re-weighted, so the Labour Bureau periodically rebases. The move to 2016 = 100 took effect in October 2020. The catch for DA is continuity: the 7th CPC formula was written on the old series, so a linking factor of 2.88 bridges the two. Multiply a new-series reading by 2.88 and you get the old-series equivalent — which is exactly the step buried inside the DA equation. This is why you should never compare a 2016-base reading directly against an old newspaper clipping quoting a 200-plus number; they are on different scales.

What is actually in the basket

AICPI-IW weights spending the way a working-class household really spends it, and food and beverages carry by far the largest share — close to half the basket. Housing, fuel and light, clothing, medical care, education, transport and miscellaneous items make up the rest. That heavy food weight is the single most important thing to understand about your DA: when vegetables, pulses, cereals or edible oil spike, the index jumps and your next DA hike is larger; when food is calm, DA barely moves even if petrol or rent is climbing. Prices are gathered from selected markets in 88 industrially important centres spread across the country, so the index reflects a genuinely national retail picture rather than one city's inflation.

A worked walkthrough: reading the next revision

Here is how to turn the archive into a forecast in under a minute. Take the latest twelve readings — for the current window the average works out to about 148.08. Divide by 90.77 (that is 261.42 ÷ 2.88): 1.6314. Subtract 1 and multiply by 100, then round down. That lands you near 63% cumulative DA — which is why the next revision is projected close to that figure. Notice that with only one or two months of the window still unpublished, the number is already almost fixed; a single stray reading can nudge it by at most about a percentage point. That is the whole trick behind every "expected DA" headline — no insider information, just this archive and one equation.

How to use this archive

Every row in the table above links to a detailed analysis of that month's release — the index, the month-on-month move, the running 12-month average and the DA it implies. If you want to project the next revision yourself, plug the latest average into the AICPIN calculator at the top of this page, or let the Expected DA calculator do it and show the rupee impact on your basic pay. The Labour Bureau publishes each month's figure on the last working day of the following month at labourbureau.gov.in — so you never have to rely on a forwarded screenshot to know where DA is heading.