The reports noted that the base year for the price series will shift from 2012 to 2024
Aimed at accurately measuring changing consumption patterns in the new consumer price index (CPI) series, the Centre has identified 12 cities to monitor ecommerce price trends, as per the reports. These 12 cities have a population of over 2.5 million each.
The reports noted that the new CPI series is scheduled for release in 2026. The updated CPI series will include 2,900 markets, an increase from the current 1,181 rural and 1,114 urban markets. Prices of a particular item charged by the leading seller in the city will be noted. This is for each of these cities, meaning while pulse prices in Bengaluru could be tracked via Amazon, they could be tracked through BigBasket in Lucknow.
As the weight of the items in CPI will now originate from the Household Consumption Expenditure Survey (HCES) 2022-23, the reports noted that the base year for the price series will shift from 2012 to 2024. The redistribution of weights will be avoided in the updated series, which leads to overestimation as reallocating weight to another commodity may inaccurately represent its actual share.
The reports highlighted that the new series will be tracking the prices of online streaming services (OTT platforms), rail and air fares, as the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) is looking to enhance the market coverage across sectors.
