Indian to no longer extend practice of announcing weekly inflation figures

25 Jan 2012 Evaluate

Indian government has decided to no longer extend the practice of announcing weekly wholesale price index (WPI)-based inflation figures, which they did with a 15 days lag. The government is of the belief that the weekly data which showed the price trends widely watched food articles, other primary articles found in the raw form and fuel and power, did not depict the “holistic” picture of the price situation in the nation.

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA), chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh which took the decision of doing away with the practice explained that there used to be lot of variation in the weekly food inflation numbers and the monthly data, as weekly data represent just 25 percent of the commodities in a basket thus failing to present a clear and holistic picture of the inflation situation.

Therefore, the CCEA gave its nod to a proposal on releasing only monthly WPI data, to curb speculative movement in prices and give a comprehensive inflation picture. In addition, releasing inflation figures on monthly basis is a practice followed across the globe so announcement of monthly WPI numbers will be more in line with the global trend.

The inflation reading for the week ended January 14, which is scheduled to be released on Friday owing to a national holiday on Thursday, is going to be the last weekly inflation announcement by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry that compiles the WPI data and releases every week, mostly on Thursdays.

Earlier, the government followed the practice of releasing the overall inflation data on weekly basis. However, in October 2009, the CCEA decided to release WPI for primary articles and fuel on weekly basis in facilitated the monitoring of the prices of agricultural commodities and petroleum products which are sensitive in nature on a weekly basis.

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