Retail inflation at 2.75% in January; what’s new in new CPI series

Retail inflation stood at 2.75 per cent in January 2026 under the new Consumer Price Index (CPI) series with base year 2024=100, the government said. Year-on-year inflation based on the All India CPI (Base 2024) for January 2026 stood at 2.75 per cent (provisional) compared with January 2025. The corresponding inflation rates were 2.73 per cent for rural areas and 2.77 per cent for urban areas. This is the first retail inflation released by the government under the new CPI series.Food inflation based on the Consumer Food Price Index (CFPI) stood at 2.13 per cent, with rural food inflation at 1.96 per cent and urban food inflation at 2.44 per cent. Housing inflation for January 2026 stood at 2.05 per cent, with rural housing inflation at 2.39 per cent and urban housing inflation at 1.92 per cent.

What’s new in the new CPI series.

Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) has launched a new Consumer Price Index (CPI) series with base year 2024=100, replacing the earlier 2012 base, with the revised framework incorporating updated consumption patterns, expanded item coverage and more granular inflation data.The Ministry of Statistics & Programme Implementation (MoSPI) said the new CPI series replaces the earlier 2012 base and is based on the Household Consumption Expenditure Survey 2023-24 to better reflect current consumption patterns and improve the coverage and representativeness of the inflation measure.The revised framework adopts 12 consumption divisions in place of six earlier groups, in line with the Classification of Individual Consumption According to Purpose (COICOP) 2018 framework, enabling more granular data for policymakers, businesses and financial institutions.The government said the revised CPI basket includes new items such as rural housing, online media and streaming services, value-added dairy products, barley and related products, pen drives and external hard disks, attendant and babysitter services, and exercise equipment, while removing items such as VCR/VCD/DVD players and hiring charges, radios, tape recorders, second-hand clothing, CD/DVD audio-video cassettes and coir or rope.The total number of weighted items has increased to 358 from 299 earlier, with goods items rising to 308 from 259 and services items increasing to 50 from 40, reflecting the rising share of services in household consumption.The series also introduces rural house rent for the first time and strengthens coverage of modern consumption patterns such as online services and cleaner fuels like CNG and PNG.