The Centre will release its January retail inflation data on February 12 under the revised Consumer Price Index (CPI) series, marking a shift to a new base year of 2024. The updated series significantly broadens the consumption basket and data coverage, and will be closely tracked by markets and the Reserve Bank of India.
The CPI (2024=100) expands the coverage of goods and services to 358 items, compared with 299 in the 2012-based series. The revised basket now captures evolving consumption patterns more accurately, including:
Airfares
Prices on e-commerce platforms
OTT subscription charges
Price data will be collected from 1,465 rural markets and 1,395 urban markets, increasing the number of price collection centres and improving representativeness.
The last inflation reading under the old series was released on January 12 for December 2025. Retail inflation had then risen to 1.33 percent year-on-year, up 62 basis points from November.
The Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation has undertaken a comprehensive revision of base years for major macroeconomic indicators to improve relevance, accuracy and international comparability.
GDP and Index of Industrial Production (IIP) will move to a 2022–23 base year.
CPI will shift to a 2024 base year.
The ministry said the exercise is guided by technical advisory committees and expert groups comprising members from academia, central and state governments, and the RBI.
The release schedule is as follows:
New CPI series: February 12
New GDP series: February 27
New IIP series: May
The monthly CPI retail inflation data is a key input for the RBI’s monetary policy decisions. The central bank refrained from providing an inflation projection for the next financial year in its recent policy review, opting to wait for the new CPI series before firming up its outlook.
With the updated basket expected to better reflect current spending patterns, the January print under the new series will set the tone for inflation expectations and interest rate signals in the months ahead.
