New price index shortly, says commerce ministry

The wholesale price index (WPI) for October will be according to the old base year of 1993-94 and the WPI new series with base year 2004-05 will be released shortly, according to a senior commerce ministry official.

We will have WPI with 2004-05 as the base year soon. We have already released the monthly data for commodities," said Industrial Policy and Promotion Secretary Ajay Shankar.

"The change in WPI will help in bringing more clarity in understanding the market conditions of various sectors," he told reporters here on the sidelines of the India-EU Business Summit.

"The idea of separation (manufacturing from commodities) is because commodities and their prices have been somewhat independent from the manufacturing."

He added that the WPI was quite low in manufacturing even when food price inflation had been high.

The government had last month approved the proposal to release inflation data on monthly basis with the base year of 2004 instead of week-wise as is done currently.

Announcing the decision, Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma had said: "Because of the frequency, the response was also poor particularly from the manufacturing sector. But on the monthly performance, the response is bound to be better, reflecting the true position."

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( 216 Words)

2009-11-06-14:48:50 (IANS)

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