New Delhi, June 15 (IANS) The Ministry of Commerce and Industry on Monday said that it launched a revised Wholesale Price Index (WPI) series with 2022-23 as the new base year and reported wholesale inflation at 9.68 per cent in May.

The new WPI series replaces the existing 2011-12 base year series and is part of a broader overhaul of producer price measurement in the country.

Alongside the revised WPI, the government released new series of Output Producer Price Index (OPPI), Trial Input Producer Price Index (IPPI) and Service Producer Price Indices (PPI) for seven services.

According to the ministry, the transition towards producer price indices is aligned with global best practices and recommendations of the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The WPI series will continue to be released for five years to allow users sufficient time to transition to the PPI framework.

In addition, the All India WPI inflation rate for May stood at 9.68 per cent year-on-year, while the index for all commodities rose to 109.9.

Among major groups, inflation in primary articles accelerated to 4.99 per cent in May.

However, fuel and power inflation surged to about 30 per cent, while manufactured products inflation rose to 7.48 per cent during the same period.

The ministry said mineral oils, crude petroleum and natural gas, chemicals and chemical products, and basic metals were among the major contributors to wholesale inflation.

Moreover, the WPI Food Index recorded inflation of 4.49 per cent in May.

As part of the revision, the total number of items covered under the WPI basket has increased from 697 to 957.

The new series also incorporates renewable energy sources such as solar and wind power under the electricity category and includes nuclear electricity in the basket, the government said.

Meanwhile, the government has reorganised the energy basket by moving crude petroleum and natural gas from the primary articles group to fuel and power.

The revised methodology uses gross value of output (GVO) for deriving weights and introduces updated techniques for index compilation and treatment of missing price data.

The ministry said the new output PPI for all commodities stood at 109.6 in May, while the trial Input PPI for the manufacturing sector was recorded at 104.9.

–IANS

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