A new wholesale price index series with an updated product portfolio will be launched on Tuesday.
The new series has been finalised on the recommendations of a working group headed by Planning Commission member Abhijit Sen.
The new series will have 2004-05 as the base year, as against 1993-94 in the present mode and will eventually reflect a consumption basket that is more relevant in the current scenario, thereby making inflation data more reliable.
Some of the important items included in the new series basket are flowers, lemon, crude petroleum, ice cream, canned meat, palm oil, readymade and instant food powder, mineral water, computer stationary, leather products, scooter and motorcycle tyre, polymers, petrochemical intermediates, granites, marbles, gold, silver, construction machinery, refrigerators, computers, dish antenna, transformer, microwave oven, telephone instruments, TV sets, VCD, washing machine and auto parts among others.
A representative commodity basket comprising 676 items has been selected and a new weighting diagram reflecting the current structure of the economy has been derived for the new series.
The number of quotations selected for collecting price data for the above items is 5482. "Thus, there is substantial increase in the number of items in the commodity basket and number of quotations for collecting price data in comparison to the existing series," a commerce and industry ministry statement said.
{{/usCountry}}The number of quotations selected for collecting price data for the above items is 5482. "Thus, there is substantial increase in the number of items in the commodity basket and number of quotations for collecting price data in comparison to the existing series," a commerce and industry ministry statement said.
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