 "Reliance Industries, retail, CPI Inflation")
India’s shift to the CPI 2024 base has halved index levels in the back series, but inflation rates remain unchanged as the rebasing alters scale, not price movement.
India’s shift to the CPI 2024 base year has sharply lowered the headline index level for the back series compared to the 2012 series — in fact, it has more or less halved it — but the inflation rate remains the same in both series.
Under the earlier 2012 series, the Combined CPI stood at 150.2 in January 2020. In the 2024 series, the same month reads 79.11. By December 2025, the index stands at 198 under the old base and 104.29 under the new one. Across rural and urban segments, the pattern is similar: Index levels are compressed to nearly half their previous magnitude.
The adjustment reflects the official linking factors — 0.5267 for Combined, 0.5222 for Rural and 0.5320 for Urban, which rescale the older series to the new base year. The statistical reset changes the level of the index, not its movement.
The shift appears significant at first glance. The index is effectively compressed to a new scale. But inflation — measured as the rate of change — is identical under both series.
This outcome follows from the use of constant linking factors. Since each observation in the old series is multiplied by the same number, the percentage change between periods does not vary. The base shifts; the growth rate does not.
First Published: Feb 12 2026 | 5:45 PM IST
