New Delhi: The government is set to revise the base year of the Wholesale Price Index (WPI) to 2022-23 and launch the Producer Price Index (PPI), a significant step towards updating India’s inflation measurement framework.
In addition, the government has invited the media to a briefing on the matter on Tuesday, which will be addressed by DPIIT Principal Economic Adviser Praveen Mahto.
“We have used WPI 2022-23 data, which has been made available internally to us, so that we do not have to make modifications to the April IIP data, which we expect to be available in the public domain within the next few weeks,” MoSPI Secretary Saurabh Garg said.
The current WPI series uses 2011-12 as the base year, while the revised series will shift to 2022-23.
Garg said the transition from WPI to output PPI would not happen immediately even after the launch of the new index, adding that the government would first study the stability and reliability of the new series before adopting it for wider use.
He noted that the divergence between WPI and output PPI in India is not expected to be substantial because of the existing methodology used for WPI calculations.
The development comes a day after the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI), while releasing the Index of Industrial Production (IIP) with the revised 2022-23 base year, said it had already used updated WPI deflators with the new base year for compiling value-reported items in the index.
Earlier in February, the government had said that with the GDP base year being revised to 2022-23, the CPI base year being revised to 2024 and the IIP base year shifting to 2022-23, India’s statistical system is undergoing comprehensive modernisation.
“The base year revision of WPI is also in progress. Until the updated WPI becomes available, the existing WPI will continue to be used as a deflator,” according to an official statement.
Additionally, MoSPI plans to incorporate the Producer Price Index (PPI) in the near future. PPI measures changes in the prices of goods and services bought and sold by producers, it added.
(IANS)
