- India launched a revised Wholesale Price Index (WPI) with 2022-23 as the base year
- Wholesale inflation rose to 9.68% in May from 8.26% in April under the new WPI series
- The WPI basket expanded to 957 items from 697, adding solar, wind, and nuclear power
India launched a revised Wholesale Price Index series with 2022-23 as the base year and reported wholesale inflation of 9.68% in May, compared with 8.26% in April, according to data released by the Office of the Economic Adviser on Sunday.
The new series replaces the WPI with base year 2011-12. Alongside the revised index, the government also released new series of the Output Producer Price Index, Trial Input Producer Price Index and Services Producer Price Index with the same base year.
The all-commodities WPI stood at 109.9 in May, up from 108.8 in April. Inflation in primary articles rose to 4.99% from 3.78% a month earlier. Fuel and power inflation increased to 30.33% from 24.89%, while manufactured products inflation rose to 7.48% from 6.68%.
The WPI Food Index recorded inflation of 4.49% in May, compared with 3.11% in April. The index combines food articles under primary articles and manufactured food products.
The government said mineral oils, crude petroleum and natural gas, chemicals and chemical products, and basic metals were among the major contributors to wholesale inflation during April and May.
Under the revised series, the number of items in the WPI basket has increased to 957 from 697. Solar, wind and nuclear power have been included under the electricity group. Crude petroleum and natural gas have been moved from primary articles to the fuel and power category.
The Office of the Economic Adviser said the revised WPI has been compiled using gross value of output-based weights and updated methods for index compilation and imputation of missing price data.
The government said the WPI and producer price indices will be published together for five years, after which the wholesale price index will be discontinued. Service producer price indices have been released for banking, securities transactions, insurance, management of pension funds, railways, air passenger transport and telecom services.
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