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.
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?
Monetary Policy & Inflation
This sub-topic has appeared in 6 UPSC Prelims questions.