21-11-2020 | 14:11 PM
Wholesale Price Index (WPI) Inflation
The Wholesale Price Index (WPI) increased to 1.48 per cent in October 2020. This has been the highest in the last eight months.
Key Highlights:
The inflation rate based on the WPI Food Index fell from 6.92 per cent in September 2020 to 5.78 per cent in October 2020. WPI production rose to 2.12 per cent in October 2020 compared to 1.61 per cent in September 2020.
According to RBI, the present inflation rate is unrelenting. The apex bank claims that recent steps by the Government of India, such as the implementation of stock limits on onion sellers, the temporary reduction of import duty on pulse and the imposition of stock limits on imports of onions and potatoes, have not kept prices under control.
Wholesale Price Index
That seems to be the price of the wholesale products. It focuses primarily on goods traded between companies. WPI's key goal is to track market drifts. It helps to determine the microeconomic and macroeconomic conditions of the economy.
India had the highest inflation rate of 34.68 per cent in September 1974.
The WPI shall be published by the Ministry of Trade and Industry.
The base year for the wholesale price index is 2011-12. It was 2004-2005 earlier. It has been revamped in 2017.
Major components of WPI:
The key articles used for the calculation of WPI were classified into Food Articles and Non-Food Articles.
Food Articles shall include paddy, cereals, wheat, onions, milk, fruit, eggs, fish, etc. Non-food goods are rocks, palm seeds and crude oil. In addition to these, the WPI basket also contains fuel and power, manufactured products.
Manufactured goods include clothing, textiles, paper, plastics, pesticides, metals, cement and many more. The basket of processed goods also contains tobacco products, sugar, animal oils, etc.
