New Delhi, June 15 -- For nearly 100 days now, the world has been bracing for higher inflation.

In India, price pressures have begun to emerge, but not fast enough to match public expectations, creating a widening gap between perception and reality.

Retail inflation in May stood at 3.93%, below the Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) medium-term target of 4%, even as fuel prices were finally allowed to rise. Yet households increasingly feel that prices are climbing much faster.

The divergence stems from how inflation is measured versus how it is experienced. Headline inflation is a weighted average of 358 items, many of which continue to register deflation or inflation below 2%, helping keep the overall print subdued. Consumers, however, ten...