The inflation data for January 2026 will be based on 2024 prices instead of the 2012 series followed today, according to the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation.
The first set of data to be released on February 12, 2026, in the new inflation series will have 2024 as the base. It will derive weights for items from the 2022-23 Household Consumption Expenditure Survey released earlier this year.
In July, Moneycontrol reported that the government was considering 2024 as the base year for the new CPI series, while using weights from the 2022-23 Household Consumer Expenditure Survey.
The new series, besides a new base, is also likely to feature a larger basket of products and items like Bluetooth earphones, which were missing from the last calculation.
The old series, still in use today, considers VCRs and radios—items that have long gone out of vogue—for calculating consumer inflation.
Less for food
The new series is also expected to have less weightage for food items. The HCES results released earlier this year peg the weightage of food in consumption at 46.4 percent for rural areas compared with 52.9 percent in the 2011-12 series, which forms the basis of current inflation calculations.
Food was given a 39.2 percent weight for urban areas compared with 42.6 percent in the 2011-12 round.
Long overdue
It’s been over a decade since the government last revised inflation, GDP or IIP data. While the government was in the process of doing so in 2018-19, following the 2017-18 Household Consumer Expenditure Survey, it had to junk the survey citing quality issues.
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