New Delhi: The number of rural households expecting their income to increase in the next financial year fell from 75.9% in November to 71.8% in January according to a bi-monthly survey conducted by the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Nabard) earlier this month.This is the lowest share of respondents expecting an income rise since the March 2025 survey round, when 72.2% reported similar expectations. The survey, conducted during the last week of December 2025 and the first week of January 2026, also found that the proportion of households expecting improvement in income and employment conditions over the next quarter fell to 46.4%, the lowest level recorded since September 2024.However, the proportion of households expecting a decline in income fell to 3.4% in January 2026, the lowest level recorded. A year earlier, 7.4% of rural households had reported a fall in income.The Nabard survey, titled Rural Economic Conditions and Sentiments, stated that the share of households reporting increased consumption dropped to 73%, the lowest across all rounds, indicating a “slackening in rural consumption demand during the last two months”.The survey also noted the expansionary impact of goods and services tax (GST) rate rationalisation announced in September, along with the festival season, which reflected in the November 2025 survey, when 79.2% of rural households reported higher consumption expenditure over the previous year, the highest level since the survey commenced.However, despite falling food prices, the survey found that expenditure on food as part of the total monthly consumption had increased for a section of rural households to 55% – the highest across all rounds. Retail food inflation remained in the negative for the seventh consecutive month at -2.71% in December 2025. On rural inflation, 87.6% of households reported that inflation experienced by them was at or below 5%.On credit usage, Nabard said nearly 55% of respondents relied exclusively on formal sources of credit. Among those borrowing from informal sources, more than half borrowed from friends and relatives. While the average interest rate on informal credit remained at around 17–18%, over one-fourth of households borrowing informally reported paying no interest.