New Delhi: India’s inflation rate based on the Consumer Price Index (CPI), with the new base year 2024, for the month of January this year is estimated at 2.75 per cent compared to the same month of the previous year, according to official data released by the Ministry of Statistics on Thursday.
The food inflation came in at 2.13 per cent during the month. Prices of vegetables such as potatoes, onions and garlic declined during January along with the prices of pulses such as arhar and tur. However, there was an increase in the price of tomatoes during the month. Housing Inflation was estimated at 2.05 per cent.
The data showed a sharp increase in the inflation rate for silver jewellery at 159.67 per cent and in the case of gold jewellery at 46.77 per cent.
India’s CPI inflation was estimated at 1.33 per cent for December 2025 which was marginally higher than the corresponding figure of 0.71 per cent for November, but the inflation rates for both months was based on the old base year of 2012.
The base for the Consumer Price Index (CPI) has now been revised from 2012 to 2024 using Household Consumption Expenditure Survey 2023-24, the official statement said.
“The Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation is releasing the Consumer Price Index (CPI) with Base 2024=100. The item basket and the corresponding weights are based on Household Consumption Expenditure Survey 2023-24. The exercise is being done for enhancing the coverage and representativeness of the inflation measure. The revision introduces more granular data enabling policymakers, financial institutions, businesses and citizens with precise data-driven decisions,” the statement said.
The new data includes two Divisions in place of six Groups in accordance to the Classification of Individual Consumption According to Purpose (COICOP) 2018.
New additions in the data are rural housing, online media service provider/streaming services, value added dairy products, Barley and its product, Pen-drive and External Hard disk, Attendant, Babysitter and Exercise equipment.
The items that have been removed are VCR/VCD/DVD player and hiring charges, Radio, Tape recorder, Clothing second-hand, CD/DVD audio/video cassettes and Coir/rope, according to the statement.
(IANS)
