India, Feb. 13 -- The Centre has introduced a new Consumer Price Index (CPI) series with 2024 as the base year, replacing the earlier 2012-based index. The shift changes how inflation is measured in order to better reflect today's consumption patterns.

The Consumer Price Index measures changes over time in the retail prices of goods and services consumed by households. Inflation is calculated as the year-on-year percentage change in the CPI. In India, CPI is the primary inflation measure used by the RBI for monetary policy.

Released by the National Statistics Office, the new series widens the coverage to 358 items from 299 with price data now collected from 1,465 rural and 1,395 urban markets, as well as 12 online marketplaces. The new ...