The government is set to release retail inflation data for January on Thursday under the new Consumer Price Index (CPI) series, which will incorporate updated consumption patterns and price movements, including airfares, e-commerce transactions and subscription rates of OTT platforms.

The revised CPI series, with 2024 as the base year (2024=100), expands the basket to 358 items, compared with 299 goods and services covered under the earlier 2012 base series. The update aims to better reflect changing consumer spending trends and emerging services in the economy.

Under the new framework, price data will be collected from 1,465 rural markets and 1,395 urban markets, significantly increasing the number of data collection points to enhance accuracy and representation in the inflation calculation.