Consumer Price Index (CPI)
Why it Matters?
Retail inflation in India fell to a 77-month low of 2.1% in June 2025, driven by easing food prices for the eighth consecutive month and falling crude oil costs.
What You Should Know?
CPI measures price changes of a fixed basket of goods and services bought by retail consumers.
It reflects the change in purchasing power of currency due to inflation or deflation.
CPI is used to track retail inflation in the economy.
It helps the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and governments in making monetary and fiscal policy decisions.
Its primary components are:
Food CPI is published monthly by the National Statistical Office (NSO).
NSO functions under the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI).
The current base year for CPI is 2011–2012.
The CPI basket may be revised periodically to reflect changing consumption patterns.