New Delhi: Food items will be given less weightage in the new Wholesale Price Index (WPI) to reflect the changing consumer behaviour and lifestyle and make the inflation measuring barometer more contemporary.
The weightage of food items will be lowered in the new index, to be finalised by December, to give greater emphasis to manufactured items on which consumers are spending larger portions of their income.
"Currently manufactured product category has weight of 63.75 percent, which is expected to increase by 2-3 percent once the new index is introduced," an official said.
Reducing weightage for food items would mean changes in
their prices would comparatively find lesser reflection in the
inflation index against items in those category which have
larger weightage.
The primary article group which consist of foodgrain and
milk weight is expected to decline a bit while there could be
minor changes in the fuel, power light and lubricant group.
The weightage of manufactured product would increase as
most of the addition would take place under this category, the
official said.
In the existing series, the weightage of primary articles
is 22.02 percent. The weightage of fuel, power, light and
lubricants in the index is about 14 percent.
More than 300 new items such as cell phones and laptop
computers would be in the new series, the official added.
Currently there are 435 items in the WPI.
With the addition of new items, data reporting would be
more representative and give a better picture of the price
situation, the official claimed.
The base year for the new index will be 2004-05. At
present, the WPI is calculated on 1993-94 base.
The Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP),
which brings out the inflation data, has started a trial run
of the new index and data is being collected.
In the trail index, data for 1,100 items are being
collected, which would be eventually consolidated to about 700
articles, the official said.
Besides, the government is working on an index to measure
rise in prices in the services sector, which include telecom,
banking and aviation.
Bureau Report
First Published: Sunday, September 13, 2009, 11:49