The Government has announced the approval for revising the Base Year of Wholesale Price Index (WPI) from 2011-12 to 2022-23 and introducing Producer Price Indices (PPIs). The revised series of WPI inflation with the new base year will be unveiled on June 15, replacing the existing series. This decision was conveyed by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry.
The new series will include Output Producer Price Index (OPPI), Trial Input Producer Price Index (IPPI), and Service Producer Price Index (Service PPI) for seven services like Banking, Securities Transaction, Insurance, and others. These indices will have the base year 2022-23 and will also be released alongside the revised WPI series.
The transition from WPI to PPI aligns with global best practices and IMF recommendations. The availability of Output PPI and Input PPI aids in understanding price movements of output and input items in industries. This shift will provide users with a better grasp of how inflation on input items influences the output.
The Service PPIs for seven services have been compiled initially based on data availability, with plans to expand the basket in subsequent phases. The new WPI series, along with Output PPI, will be compiled monthly starting from May 2026, with back series data available from April 2023 to April 2026. The total number of items in the new WPI series has increased to 957 from 697, with additions like Solar and Wind energy sources under the ‘Electricity’ Group.
Crude Petroleum and Natural Gas have been moved from ‘Primary Articles’ to the ‘Fuel and Power’ segment for better alignment with other major fuels. The revamped WPI series incorporates improved methodology for weights derivation, computation, and imputing missing price data.
