CPI

India's wholesale inflation hit 8.3% in April, driven by fuel prices. While retail inflation remains lower at 3.48%, rising supply-chain costs may soon push consumer prices higher

GST rate cuts have sharply lowered prices of cars and appliances, but rising input costs have limited relief for food and personal care items, Bank of Baroda analysis shows

As digital payments reshape consumption patterns, questions arise over whether India's CPI-based inflation targeting adequately reflects real transaction prices in a rapidly evolving economy

India's retail inflation rose to 3.4% in March, driven by higher food and fuel prices, with economists warning of further upside risks amid global uncertainties

India's retail inflation rose to an 11-month high of 3.21% in February as food prices and precious metals gained

If global crude averages $110-115 per barrel in FY27, India's net oil imports could rise by $56-64 billion annually, worsening the current account deficit and fuelling inflation

Under previous methods, low nominal ‌GDP growth alongside low wholesale inflation created discrepancies by translating into higher real growth rates

Food deflation and bullion-led inflation offset each other in January, but net impact of top items lifted retail inflation to 2.75% from 1.33% in December

Reserve Bank of India Governor Sanjay Malhotra on Monday said the new CPI inflation series based on 2024 prices will better reflect Indian households' consumption patterns and reduce volatility. In both ways, it will help in better CPI estimation, he said at a media briefing, following the post-Budget meeting of the RBI Central Board of Directors with Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman here. Data released on February 12 showed retail inflation was 2.75 per cent in January, according to the new CPI series, which uses 2024 as the base year. The Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation released the new CPI series, which widens coverage and tracks prices of 358 items, sharply up from 299 items in the old series. Headline inflation in January, the first month based on the new series, was above the lower end of the RBI's tolerance band of 2-6 per cent, a first since June 2025. It averaged 2.2 per cent in 2025, according to both the new and old series. "If the whole methodol

Revised 2024 base year, fresh consumption weights and expanded market basket recast state inflation rankings; Telangana tops January list under new series

Former chief statistician says the revised cpi was overdue, supports excluding free pds items and sees little immediate impact on rbi policy decisions

Officials stressed that the December number under the old series and the January print are not comparable

Although inflation remains well below the Reserve Bank of India's 4 per cent target, the new figures could prompt the central bank to hold off on any further rate cuts and push up bond yields further

CPI tracks retail price changes across India; January 2026 inflation data shifts to a new 2024 base year reflecting updated spending patterns

India's retail inflation gauge has evolved from fragmented worker-specific indices to a unified CPI framework that now anchors monetary policy and welfare decisions

Kerala's retail inflation hit 9.49% in December, topping all states for the seventh straight month, driven by soaring coconut oil, gold prices and rural cost pressures

The Reserve Bank of India currently aims to keep inflation anchored around 4%, the mid-point of a 2%-6% range mandated by the government

The government proposes to include online sources as well as e-commerce platforms to compute retail inflation in a bid to substantially improve reliability, accuracy, and overall quality of the consumer price index (CPI). Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) is in the process of revising the base years for computing CPI, Index of Industrial Production (IIP) and Gross Domestic Product (GDP). The new series of CPI (consumer price index-based inflation) with base year (2024=100) data is scheduled to be released on February 12, 2026. The data on National Accounts with financial year 2022-23 as base year is scheduled to be released on February 27, 2026, while the new series of IIP data with base year 2022-23 will be released on May 28. MoSPI on Tuesday organised a pre-release consultative workshop on base revision of CPI, GDP and IIP. On inclusion of new data sources in CPI, the ministry said in addition to the data collected from physical outlets as being done i

Economists' projections ranged from 0.5 per cent on the lower end to 1 per cent, with the median projection at 0.7 per cent

October CPI-based inflation: India's food inflation dropped sharply in October, falling to -5.02 per cent from -2.28 per cent in September