Wholesale Price Index, WPI of April 2021

The Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade recently released Wholesale Price in India for the month of April 2021. The WPI for the month of April 2021 stood at 128.1. The base year in calculating WPI is fixed as 2011-12.

WPI of April 2021

• The annual rate of inflation for the month of April 2021 was 10.49%
• The inflation rate is high in the month mainly because of price rise in crude petroleum which in turn increased the prices of petrol and diesel in the country. Also, the price rise is due to increase in cost of manufactured foods.

Groups of commodities

There are three major groups of commodities that are used in calculating the rate of inflation. They are primary articles, manufactured products and fuel and power.

Primary Articles

The weight of primary articles in WPI is 22.62%.

• The index of this group increased by 3.83%.
• The prices of minerals increased by 6.6%
• The prices of Crude Petroleum and Natural Gas increased by 4.8%
• The prices of food articles increased by 3.84%
• The price of non-food articles increased by 2.65%
• The above increases are in comparison with the month of March.

Fuel and Power

• The weight of fuel and power is 13.15%
• The index of this group decreased by 1%
• The prices of coals decreased by 0.32%
• The prices of Mineral oil decreased by 0.29%
• The prices of electricity decreased by 4.96%

Manufactured products

• The weight of manufactured goods is 64.23%
• The index of this group increased by 1.65%.
• The increase in this category was mainly contributed by food products, basic metals, chemicals, textiles, plastic and rubber products.

WPI Food Index

The WPI Food index consists of food products from manufactured products group and food articles from primary articles group. The WPI Food Index increased from 153.4 in March 2021 to 158.9 in April 2021. The increase rate in April is 7.58% and that of March is 5.28%

Month: Current Affairs - May, 2021