File Photo: A vegetable vendor attending a customer in a market
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SUSHIL KUMAR VERMA
ndia’s CPI Retail Inflation, Retail Inflation outlook for January 2026 Live updates: The December headline number, the last one in the 2012 base year series, was 1.33 per cent. This is expected to be revised upward in the back series data.
Earlier, an expert group report released by Statistics Ministry paved the way for lowering the weight of highly volatile food and beverages. Accordingly, the weight of food and beverages will be lowered to 36.8 from 45.9 while making adjustments in all other groups.
- February 12, 2026 12:44
‘New series, more effective monetary policy actions’
The new series will help the RBI to “make its monetary policy actions much more effective and transmission quicker,” said Amol Agrawal, who teaches economics at the National Institute of Securities Markets. “It minimises, if not eliminates policy errors that the central bank may have suffered occasionally from under the older series.”
- February 12, 2026 12:36
No repo rate cut likely for now!
Although inflation remains well below the Reserve Bank of India’s 4 per cent target, the new figures based on the new series which are expected to be slightly higher than previous months could prompt the central bank to hold off on any further rate cuts and push up bond yields further.
Last week, Governor Sanjay Malhotra kept the benchmark interest rate unchanged and indicated a prolonged pause going forward.
- February 12, 2026 12:30
Revised CPI may give RBI reason to keep interest rates on hold
The weighting of volatile items such as food has been reduced to about 36.8 per cent from nearly half previously, and new spending categories like rentals for rural housing and online shopping, have been added. The base year has also been changed to 2024 from 2012.
The changes could lift the January inflation reading to about 2.77 per cent, according to the median estimate of 32 economists in a Bloomberg survey.
- February 12, 2026 12:28
January’s retail inflation with new base year likely between 2-3%
The government is set to release the retail inflation data for January with the new base year of 2024 on Thursday. The headline inflation is expected to exceed 2 per cent but stay below 3 per cent.
The December headline number, the last one in the 2012 base year series, was 1.33 per cent. This is expected to be revised upward in the back series data.
Published on February 12, 2026
