New retail inflation series to be released tomorrow

Central Statistics Office has recently revised the base year and methodology for computing national account which provides a picture of the economy

In order to present a better picture of the price situation in the country, government will tomorrow release a new series of Consumer Price Index (CPI) with 2012 as base year for computing retail inflation rate.

The first series (revised) has been compiled for January which will be released on February 12.

The Central Statistics Office (CSO) has recently revised the base year and methodology for computing national account which provides a picture of the economy.

From January 2016 onwards, inflation rates would be compiled using the actual CPI of the revised series, according to an official statement.

CSO has been releasing Consumer Price Indices (CPI) for Rural, Urban and Combined, at state/UTs and all India level, since January 2011.

"Now the CSO is in the process of revising the Base Year from 2010=100 to 2012=100," the statement had said adding that with this (base) revision, the gap between Price Reference Year (Base Year) and the Weight Reference Year has been minimised.

Apart from base revision, a number of methodological improvements have been introduced in the revised series.

Prices of Antyodaya Anna Yojanna (AAY) have also been included in addition to Above Poverty Line (APL) & Below Poverty Line (BPL) prices being taken in the existing series.

The weight of food and beverages would be 45.86 in the new 2012 series compared to 47.58 in 2010 series for national index.

The weight of fuel and light segment would be 6.84 in the new series as against 9.49 in the 2010 series.

The weight of clothing and footware segment would be increased to 6.53 from 4.73 while that of housing will be 10.07 from 9.77.

The weight of pan, tobacco and intoxicants will be increased to 2.38 from 2.13. Similarly the weight of miscellaneous will also be increased to 28.32 from 26.31 in the new series.

The number of priced items has been changed from 437 to 448 in rural and from 450 to 460 in urban at all India level.

In the revised series, 11 new priced items have been added, without dropping any item, in rural sector at all India level. In case of urban, 7 priced items have been dropped and 17 new priced items have been added.