Revision of Wholesale Price Index (WPI) Base Year to 2022-23
Summary
The Government of India has revised the base year for the Wholesale Price Index (WPI) from 2011-12 to 2022-23 to better reflect the current economic structure.
●This revision aims to capture structural changes in the economy, update the commodity basket by including new items, and adjust weightages to align with contemporary production and consumption patterns.
●The updated WPI will provide a more accurate measure of macroeconomic inflation at the wholesale level, aiding policymakers, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), and businesses in making informed economic decisions.
Monetary Policy & Inflation
This sub-topic has appeared in 6 UPSC Prelims questions.
The Wholesale Price Index (WPI) is a crucial macroeconomic indicator published by the Office of the Economic Adviser (OEA), Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), Ministry of Commerce and Industry.
●The revision of its base year from 2011-12 to 2022-23 is a periodic exercise to ensure the index remains representative of the evolving economic landscape.
●This involves updating the commodity basket to include emerging products and removing obsolete ones, alongside reassigning weights based on the gross value of output.
●Unlike the Consumer Price Index (CPI), WPI does not include services and focuses solely on goods traded at the wholesale level.
[The WPI base year revision to 2022-23 enhances the accuracy of inflation tracking by updating the commodity basket and weights, though it continues to exclude services.]
Factual Pointers
Practice · 1 question
Consider the following statements regarding the Wholesale Price Index (WPI) in India:
1. The base year for WPI has been recently revised to 2022-23.
2. It is published by the National Statistical Office (NSO).
3. The WPI basket includes both goods and services.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
Topics