Informist, Wednesday, Jul. 23, 2025

NEW DELHI – The working group for the revision of Wholesale Price Index Tuesday discussed including services and the Producer Price Index in the revised WPI framework. This was the second meeting of the working group, which was formed by the government in January to revise the WPI base year to 2022-23 from the current 2011-12 and suggest a commodity basket and the methodology to compute WPI.

"Discussions focused on the progress made by various sub-groups examining agriculture, manufacturing, mining, fuel, power, and services sectors," NITI Aayog, which hosted the meeting, said in a post on X. The meeting was chaired by NITI Aayog Member Ramesh Chand, who also heads the 18-member working group. The meeting was also attended by experts from other government ministries, the Reserve Bank of India, State Bank of India, and National Statistical Commission.

A key issue with the current WPI framework in India is the lack of services, unlike the CPI, which tracks retail prices of both goods and services. The decision to revise WPI is in line with the government's other efforts to move to new series of other macroeconomic indicators such as CPI, GDP, and Index of Industrial Production. The statistics ministry will introduce the new CPI, IIP, and GDP series in Jan-Mar.

The working group has also been tasked with suggesting a commodity basket for a new Producer Price Index, which will also have 2022-23 base year, and its computational methodology. The current WPI series was adopted in 2017, when the base year changed from 2004-05.

In July 2024, Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade Secretary Rajesh Kumar Singh had said the government has finalised a Producer Price Index model, which was also reviewed by the International Monetary Fund. However, the government has not set a timeline for the launch of the Producer Price Index, Singh had said.

The working group includes State Bank of India Group Chief Economic Adviser Soumya Kanti Ghosh, economist Surjit Bhalla, Crisil Chief Economist Dharmakirti Joshi, Economic Advisory Council to Prime Minister Member Shamika Ravi, and Kotak Mahindra Asset Management Co. Managing Director Nilesh Shah. End

Reported by Shubham Rana

Edited by Ashish Shirke

For users of real-time market data terminals, Informist news is available exclusively on the NSE Cogencis WorkStation.

Cogencis news is now Informist news. This follows the acquisition of Cogencis Information Services Ltd by NSE Data & Analytics Ltd, a 100% subsidiary of the National Stock Exchange of India Ltd. As a part of the transaction, the news department of Cogencis has been sold to Informist Media Pvt Ltd.

Informist Media Tel +91 (11) 4220-1000

Send comments to feedback@informistmedia.com

© Informist Media Pvt. Ltd. 2025. All rights reserved.