Consumer Price Index
Also called: CPI, retail inflation, CPI inflation
An index of the retail prices of goods and services households buy. Its yearly change is India's headline inflation rate.
India's Consumer Price Index is published every month by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation. It tracks the prices of a fixed basket of items, from food and housing to transport, health and education, each weighted by how much households spend on it.
The inflation rate is the percentage change in the index compared with the same month a year earlier. The RBI's inflation target is set in terms of this index.
Example
If the index is 106 in July this year and 102 in July last year, inflation is (106 − 102) ÷ 102, about 3.9%.
Learn more in these lessons
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Related terms
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