The above article is from HINDU. The following are some import | ECONOMY by VIVEK SINGH

The above article is from HINDU. The following are some important points.

1) The Wholesale Price Index (WPI) is calculated on a monthly basis and the data is published with a lag/delay of 14 days. So yesterday the WPI data came for the month of June 2021.

2) The WPI data is published by Office of Economic Advisor under DPIIT, Ministry of Commerce and Industry.

3) As we cannot measure the price change of all the commodities on a monthly basis, so we have selected a basket of commodities which are traded in the wholesale markets in major scale. The WPI basket consists of 697 items. And even in these items different commodities are traded in different volume/scale, so different weights have been assigned to these 697 different commodities depending on the value of trade. The base year for WPI series is 2011-12. This means that the 697 items were fixed (and their weights fixed) and every month the price change in these items are measured in the wholesale mandis and the figure is reported in the newspapers.

4) June WPI is 12.07% which means the prices increased by 12.07% from June 2020 to June 2021. This is called year on year (y-o-y) increase. Generally the y-o-y data is published by default, which means if nothing is written then it is basically y-o-y basis. But the sequential (month-on-month) data is also calculated. For example, prices increased (i.e. indexed moved up) by 0.75% from May 2021 to June 2021.

5) The main reason for increase in June 2021 WPI is base effect and and the rise in prices of petrol, diesel, naptha and ATF, as well as basic metals and food products.

6) Core inflation means inflation in various commodities except the volatile ones like food and fuel. And headline inflation means including food and fuel. Both Headline and Core inflation is calculated for both CPI and WPI. So, we have "Headline WPI", "Core WPI", "Headline CPI", "Core CPI"...