The Cabinet panel for deciding economic matters on Monday cleared a proposal to publish headline inflation data, based on wholesale price index, every month starting November 14 — instead of each week at present. The price movement of primary articles such as food and fuel will, however, continue to be released every week. The decision to change the frequency of inflation data is aimed at accurately capturing the changes in prices of manufactured goods, where fluctuation is minimal. ‘‘The reason is...frequency. The response (to price change every week) is poor particularly from the manufacturing sector. On monthly basis, the response is bound to be better, reflecting true position,’’ commerce minister Anand Sharma told reporters after the Cabinet panel’s meeting. The Cabinet panel also decided to shift the base year for inflation from 1993-94 to 2004-05. In the existing series, the weight of primary articles is 22.02%, while manufactured products contribute 63.75%. The weight of fuel, power, light and lubricants in the index is about 14%. The proposals were first discussed by a similar panel in February during a meeting of the UPA-1 Cabinet but it was decided to continue with the system of releasing the data every Thursday. During the last discussion on the proposal, it was felt that two sets of data could confuse people and industry. The idea for a monthly inflation data was first drawn by a panel set up in 2005 under Planning Commission member Abhijit Sen. Its main task was to formulate a new WPI series since the present one with the base year 1993-94 has become outdated.
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