Govt to unveil new IIP, WPI series on Friday

The government will release on Friday the new series of Index of Industrial Production as well as Wholesale Price Index, with 2011-12 as the base year, so as to map economic activities more accurately.

The monthly WPI for April under the new series will be released on May 12 instead of May 15, the Commerce Ministry said in a statement.

The data for both the indices will be released at a joint press conference for the revision of base year from 2004-05 to 2011-12. It will be addressed by top brass of both the ministries – commerce and statistics.

A high-level panel had firmed up the methodology for the IIP with new base year of 2011-12.

The change in baseline for the IIP and WPI is expected to bring in more accuracy in mapping the level of economic activity and calculating other numbers like national accounts.

The Central Statistics Office (CSO) has already changed the base year for the country's national accounts, including the gross domestic product (GDP) and the gross value addition (GVA).

The retail inflation based on the Consumer Price Index (CPI) is also calculated on the base year of 2011-12. For long, economists and various think tanks have been pitching for release of new time series of WPI and IIP so that GDP numbers can be based on more accurate and realistic data.

The base year is revised periodically to capture the changes in the structure and composition of the industry over time due to technological changes, economic reforms and consumption pattern of the people.

The IIP gives a broad outlook on output of various types of goods like basic, consumer and capital ones, which helps in gauging the level of economic progress and investments in the economy.