Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) releases January 2026 CPI at 2.75% under new 2024=100 base

Key facts

• Retail inflation stood at 2.75 per cent in January 2026 under the new Consumer Price Index (CPI) series with base year 2024=100.
• 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.
• 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.
• The new CPI series replaces the earlier 2012 base and is based on the Household Consumption Expenditure Survey 2023-24.
• 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.
• 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.
• The series 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.