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The Commerce Ministry plans to unveil a new price index taking the base year as 2004-2005. As for the Wholesale Price Index (WPI) for October, the base year will be according to the old base year of 1993-1994.
“We will have WPI with 2004-2005 as the base year soon. We have already released the monthly data for commodities,” said Industrial Policy and Promotion Secretary Ajay Shankar.
“The change in WPI will help bringing more clarity in understanding the market conditions of various sectors,” Shankar said on the sidelines of the India-EU business Summit.
“The idea of separation (separation of manufacturing from commodities) is because commodities and their prices have somewhat been independent from manufacturing.” Shankar also said that the WPI has been low in manufacturing even when food price inflation had been high.
During the last month, the government approved a proposal to release inflation data on a monthly basis taking the base year of 2004 instead of the week-wise schedule that is currently followed.
Anand Sharma, Minister for Commerce and Industry had this to say about the new decision: “Because of the frequency, the response was also poor particularly from the manufacturing sector. But on the monthly performance, the response is bound to be better, reflection the true position.”
