Labour Ministry Revises Base Year for Consumer Price Index for Agricultural and Rural Labourers

The Labour Bureau under the Union Ministry of Labour & Employment has announced a significant revision of the base year for the Consumer Price Index Numbers for Agricultural Labourers (CPI – AL) and Rural Labourers (CPI – RL). The new base year is now 2019=100, replacing the previous 1986-87=100 series.

Key Enhancements and Changes in the New Series:

• Revised Base Year: Shifted from 1986-87=100 to 2019=100, reflecting updated economic realities.
• Improved Scope and Coverage:
  • Covers 34 States/Union Territories (up from 20).
  • Includes more sample villages (787 compared to 600).
  • Encompasses a wider range of items (~150-200 compared to ~65-106 previously).
• Methodological Changes for Robustness:
  • Revised Weighting Diagrams: Adjusted to reflect current consumption patterns of agricultural and rural labourers.
  • Geometric Mean (GM) Adoption: Switched from the Arithmetic Mean (AM) to GM for averaging, which helps to moderate price volatility and provides a more accurate reflection of price changes.
  • Latest Classification: Utilizes the latest COICOP-2018 (Classification of Individual Consumption According to Purpose) for categorizing individual consumption items.
• Inflation Rates (June 2025):
  • Both CPI-AL and CPI-RL stand at 134 points.
  • Year-on-year inflation rates are 1.42% for CPI-AL and 1.73% for CPI-RL.
• Moderate Inflation: The press release notes that average annual inflation rates based on the new 2019=100 series have been moderate when compared to the old series.