EconomyMoney and credit
What does it cost India to borrow?
When the government borrows for ten years, lenders want 7.46% a year. That price, the 10-year bond yield, sets the floor for home loans, company borrowing and the returns on debt funds. Here is where it stands, how it got here, and who pays more.
Written for anyone with a loan, a fixed deposit or a debt fund, and anyone curious why interest rates are what they are. Benchmark yields as on 22 Oct 2026.
The 10-year government bond yield
7.46%
On 6.94% GS 2036, RBI's ten-year benchmark, as on 22 Oct 2026. Source: Reserve Bank of India
- Above the repo rate
- 196 bps
- A year ago
- 6.64%
- In thirty years of history
- Higher than 47%
The RBI lends overnight at 5.50%. Lenders want 196 bps more to tie money up for ten years.
RBI's month-end ten-year yield in Aug 2025.
of months since May 1996, when it ranged from 5.11% to 13.96%.
The price of time
Lend for longer and you usually want more in return: more can go wrong over ten years than over one. Plot what the government pays at each maturity and you get the yield curve. At the end of Aug 2026 a ten-year loan cost 108 bps more a year than a one-year loan.
Today: RBI's five benchmark bonds, as on 22 Oct 2026
Each dot is one government bond. Its name gives the interest it pays and the year it is repaid.
How to read it. From 6.98% for about 3 years to 7.83% for about 30 years: the line slopes up, as it usually does.
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The whole curve, month by month since 2008
Yield at each maturity from one to thirty years, at the end of each month. Drag the slider to travel back.
How to read it. The coloured line is the month you pick; grey lines show the same curve a year and ten years before. When the whole line shifts, rates in general moved; when it tilts, long and short rates moved apart.
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Thirty years of the 10-year yield
The ten-year yield started this record at 13.96% in May 1996, its highest, and touched its lowest, 5.11%, in Oct 2003. Over the long run it follows the RBI's policy rate, and runs above it.
The 10-year yield and the repo rate
Month-end, from 1996.
How to read it. The gap between the lines is what lenders charge for time and risk. It narrows when markets expect the RBI to cut and widens when they expect it to raise rates or worry about government borrowing.
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A day-by-day line starts here once we have three weeks of RBI's daily figures. Capture began on 22 Oct 2026; RBI keeps no archive of its own.
Steep or flat?
The gap between the ten-year and one-year yields is the curve's slope. When it is wide, markets expect rates to rise or want paying for the risk of lending long. When it falls below zero, short loans cost more than long ones: the curve is inverted. That happened in 21 of the 361 months on record, most recently in May 2024.
How much more a ten-year loan costs than a one-year loan
Month-end, from 1996.
How to read it. India's inversions have been brief. Most came when short-term money was tight, after rate hikes or in a cash squeeze (2008, 2013, 2024); some when markets expected rate cuts (2014 and 2015). Read an inversion as news about short-term money, not as a recession forecast, as it is often read in the US.
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What lenders earn after inflation
A 6.96% yield is worth less if prices rise 4.82% a year. Take inflation away and the ten-year paid 2.14% in Aug 2026, against a median of 1.93% since 2001. In 76 of 305 months it was below zero: lenders lost purchasing power.
The 10-year yield after inflation
Month-end yield minus CPI inflation for the same month.
How to read it. This uses inflation over the past year, not what lenders expected at the time. The long stretch below zero (62 months between 2008 and 2013) came when consumer inflation averaged 10.2% a year from 2009 to 2013.
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Who pays what
The central government borrows most cheaply: lenders treat it as the safest borrower in rupees. States pay more, and companies more still, even the highest-rated ones. At 10 years, state bonds traded 62 bps above the centre's, and AAA-rated companies at 1 years 141 bps above it.
What each borrower pays, by maturity
Average yield on bonds traded in the five sessions to 23 Oct 2026. Gaps mean too few bonds traded at that maturity.
How to read it. Read across each row: the further right a dot sits, the more that borrower pays. The distance between dots is the extra lenders charge for the borrower's risk and for how easily its bonds can be sold.
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These yields come from trades reported on the exchanges, which are thin for many bonds. The detailed trade curves show every bond behind each point, and the method note how bonds are filtered.
What the states pay
States borrow every week at RBI-run auctions. Every state pays more than the centre, but some much more: so far in FY27, Meghalaya paid the most above the centre at 72 bps and Jammu and Kashmir the least at 40 bps. 15 of the 22 states that also borrowed in FY26 are paying a wider gap this year.
How much more each state pays than the centre, FY27 to date
Auction cut-off yield minus the centre's yield at the same maturity, weighted by amount raised. States with three or more issues; auctions to 25 Aug 2026.
How to read it. A wider gap means lenders want more to hold that state's bonds. Size matters: the six states that borrowed least this year paid 63 bps on average, the six that borrowed most 49 bps. Small issues are harder to sell on, and lenders charge for that.
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The states' gap over time
All states, weighted by amount raised, from 2019. Latest eight-week average 49 bps.
How to read it. The median weekly gap was 44 bps in 2019, narrowed to 25 bps in 2023, and is 54 bps so far in 2026.
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At auction
The government raises money by selling bonds and Treasury bills at weekly RBI auctions. At the latest T-bill auction, three-month money cost 5.73% and one-year money 6.49%. Demand is measured by bid cover: bids received for every rupee on offer. The latest bond auction drew 1.9 times the amount on offer, against a median of 2.7 since 2019.
What short-term borrowing costs
Cut-off yields at weekly Treasury bill auctions, from 2019.
How to read it. Treasury bill yields stay close to the repo rate. When the one-year line sits well above the three-month line, lenders expect rates to rise or want paying for lending longer.
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How keen lenders are
Bids received for each rupee of bonds on offer, at each government bond auction since 2019.
How to read it. Low cover means lenders are reluctant, and the government pays more to sell its bonds; when bids fall short, primary dealers must buy the rest.
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India and the world
India pays more to borrow than rich countries do: inflation here has been higher, and lenders want paying for it. In Aug 2026 India's ten-year yield was 2.21 percentage points above the US Treasury's 4.75%.
Ten-year government bond yields
Monthly, from 2000. India and the US at month-end; others are OECD monthly averages.
How to read it. The gap averaged 5.45 percentage points in 2016 and was 2.21 percentage points in Aug 2026. Both sides moved: Indian inflation came down, and US yields rose sharply after 2022.
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How much more India pays than the US
India's ten-year yield minus the US Treasury's, month-end.
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Words on this page
Bond markets have their own language. These are the only terms you need here.
- Yield
- The return a lender earns each year if they buy a bond today and hold it until it is repaid, as a percentage. When bond prices fall, yields rise.
- Basis point (bp)
- One hundredth of a percentage point. A yield moving from 7.00% to 7.25% has risen 25 basis points.
- Benchmark bond
- The government bond traders watch for a maturity, usually the most recently issued and most traded. "6.94% GS 2036" pays 6.94% interest and is repaid in 2036.
- Yield curve
- Yields on the same borrower's bonds, from the shortest to the longest maturity, drawn as a line.
- Repo rate
- The rate at which the RBI lends to banks overnight. It anchors the short end of the curve.
- Cut-off yield
- The highest yield the government accepts at an auction; every winning bidder is paid at or below it.
- Spread
- The extra yield one borrower pays over another for the same maturity, usually over the central government.
- SDL
- State development loan: a bond issued by a state government.
Daily benchmark yields are as shown on the Reserve Bank of India's home page; RBI keeps no archive of them, so our daily record starts on 22 Oct 2026. Month-end yields are RBI's (DBIE report 217). Figures from FBIL, FIMMDA and CCIL are not used.
The workings
The question
Data
Every chart has a table view, a CSV download and a link to its published JSON. Bundles are listed in data status.