India Unveils 2022-23 WPI Base, Plans Shift to PPI After Final Series Update
Updated
Updated · Hindustan Times · Jun 15
India Unveils 2022-23 WPI Base, Plans Shift to PPI After Final Series Update
3 articles · Updated · Hindustan Times · Jun 15
Summary
India will release a new Wholesale Price Index series with the base year reset to 2022-23, and the government said this will be the last WPI revision before a later move to a Producer Price Index.
The shift is meant to modernize inflation measurement and align it with international standards, replacing the current 2011-12 base that has tracked wholesale prices for 15 years.
Under that older series, overall WPI rose from 100 to 167 between April 2011 and April 2026, with primary articles and fuel showing stronger inflation than manufactured goods in relative terms.
35 months of negative headline WPI inflation over 2012-2026 also highlighted wholesale-price volatility, especially in fuel and power, unlike CPI inflation, which never turned negative in the 2012 series.
Within manufacturing, factory-gate prices rose 51.6% over the period, and food products contributed 23.3% of manufacturing inflation growth, underscoring commodity sensitivity in India's wholesale inflation.