India needs strong institutional mechanisms for robust statistics

Institutionalize the regularity of statistical revisions so that long updation gaps don't occur again

- HIMANSHU

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, that is, 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.