Government to use e-commerce prices from Amazon and Flipkart to enhance inflation and services data.
New Delhi
The government will begin sourcing price data directly from major e-commerce platforms like Amazon and Flipkart to update its benchmark inflation and services indexes. This initiative aims to better capture changing consumption patterns and address concerns that existing data may not reflect current trends, said Saurabh Garg, Secretary of the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation.
E-commerce firms will provide weekly average prices of goods, which the government will verify against broader datasets to avoid distortions. The Ministry has already begun collecting online prices from 12 cities with populations over 2.5 million and is negotiating with platforms for direct access. The updated data will be incorporated into the Consumer Price Index (CPI) when a new series is launched early next year, with weightages adjusted based on recent consumption surveys showing a lower share of food expenditure.
The revised CPI will also include prices for airfares and streaming media, reflecting their increasing role in household consumption. Over the next two years, the government plans several statistical improvements, including a new GDP series with a 2022-23 base year.
Earlier this year, more frequent employment and investment reports were launched, and the number of households surveyed for monthly employment data has nearly doubled to around 45,000. Additionally, the ministry is developing a quarterly Index of Services Production to track output in the services sector, which constitutes over half of India’s GDP. This new index is expected to be launched by mid-2026.
