India's annual rate of Inflation slips to 3.85 per cent | Base year changed

New Delhi: India's annual rate of inflation based on wholesale prices for April 2017 slipped to 3.85 per cent from 5.29 per cent reported for March.

The official data furnished by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry has showed the WPI at the four month low as prices of food, fuel and manufactured products were eased.

According to data the base year of the current wholesale price index (WPI) has also been revised from 2004-05 to 2011-12.

TCA Anant, the Central Statistical Organisation’s chief statistician said that the change has been taken into consideration with current consumer basket and it reflects consumption patterns. “Entities more relevant to data collection have been included,” he said.

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Quick facts:

• The WPI inflation readings stood at 5.29 per cent in March, 5.51 per cent in February, 4.26 per cent in January, 2.10 per cent in December and 1.82 per cent in November.
• The inflation in food articles was 1.16 per cent in April, lower than 3.82 per cent recorded in March.
• Inflation in the fuel and power segment was 18.52 per cent.
• Manufactured products recorded an inflation of 2.66 per cent in April.
• Industrial output growth also slowed to 2.7 per cent in March as against 5.5 per cent a year ago.

What government said:

“A new food index is being compiled combining the food articles under primary articles and food products under manufactured products.Together with the Consumer Food Price Index released by the Central Statistics Office, this would help monitor the price situation of food items better.”