New Delhi, Feb. 19 -- The first estimates of inflation based on the revised series of India's Consumer Price Index (CPI) were released last week. The new CPI series uses 2024 as the base year. Accordingly, inflation in January was 2.75% (the price index's increase, i.e., over the same month of 2025), with rural inflation at 2.73% and urban at 2.77%.

The CPI revision is the first among multiple indicators undergoing a base revision. Estimates for GDP and other variables from the national accounts will be released soon.

This is an important exercise, given that the last revision for most of India's economic indicators was to 2011-12 as their base year. An outdated base year was a major part of the criticism levelled by the International M...