Inflation Index likely to be revised every 5 years says Saurabh Garg

New Delhi: India's inflation index is likely to be revised every five years, statistics ministry secretary Saurabh Garg said on Wednesday.

"The Consumer Price Index (CPI) series revision will be done in not more than five years," the secretary said at a seminar organized by the Centre for Social and Economic Progress (CSEP).

He said the Household Consumption Expenditure Survey (HCES), on which weight of items is based, will be conducted every three years.

The ministry of statistics and programme implementation ( MoSPI) will release the new CPI series in the first quarter of 2026, with 2024 as the base year.

At present, the base year is 2012, with the weight of the items based on the HCES 2011-12.

While the government initially planned to update weights for the new series using data from HCES 2022-23, they are now considering shifting to HCES 2023-24 (August-July), as more recent data is available.

The new CPI series will also incorporate ecommerce data.

Food and beverages have a 45.9% share in the CPI -- 36.3% in urban areas and 54.2% in rural areas. This share is expected to decline in line with changing consumption patterns, as reflected in the survey.

Speaking on the theme 'Transforming the National Statistical System for a More Data-Driven Policy Making', Garg outlined efforts by the ministry to make data more robust. The ministry is revising the base year for gross domestic product (GDP), Index of Industrial Production (IIP) and the CPI.