Wholesale Price Index (WPI) for June 2023 Shows a Decline of 4.12%

The provisional Wholesale Price Index (WPI) for June 2023 in India has recorded a decline of 4.12% compared to the previous year. This decrease in the WPI is primarily attributed to falling prices in various sectors, including mineral oils, food products, basic metals, crude petroleum & natural gas, and textiles.

Index Numbers & Annual Rate of Inflation (Y-o-Y in %)

Category	Weight (%)	Apr-23 (F)	May-23 (P)	June-23 (P)
All Commodities	100.0	151.1	-0.79	149.0
I. Primary Articles	22.62	177.8	1.89	176.3
II. Fuel & Power	13.15	152.7	0.99	146.0
III. Manufactured Products	64.23	141.4	-2.28	140.0
Food Index	24.38	174.0	0.40	175.2

Primary Articles

The index for primary articles increased by 0.57% to 176.3 (provisional) in June 2023 compared to May 2023. The prices of food articles increased by 2.10%, while non-food articles (-2.40%), crude petroleum and natural gas (-3.01%), and minerals (-4.32%) witnessed a decline in prices.

Fuel & Power

The index for fuel and power declined by 1.75% to 146.0 (provisional) in June 2023 compared to May 2023. Coal prices increased by 2.46%, but mineral oils (-2.30%) and electricity (-2.96%) experienced a decrease in prices.

Manufactured Products

The index for manufactured products declined by 0.50% to 140.0 (provisional) in June 2023 compared to May 2023. Among the 22 NIC two-digit groups for manufactured products, 11 groups saw a decrease in prices, including basic metals, chemical and chemical products, textiles, rubber & plastic products, and paper & paper products.

However, some groups such as tobacco products, computer, electronic and optical products, leather and related products, motor vehicles, trailers and semi-trailers, wood and products of wood and cork, printing & reproduction of recorded media, and other non-metallic mineral products witnessed an increase in prices.

WPI Food Index

The WPI Food Index, which includes food articles from the primary articles group and food products from the manufactured products group, increased from 172.8 in May 2023 to 175.2 in June 2023. The annual rate of inflation based on the WPI Food Index changed from -1.59% in May 2023 to -1.24% in June 2023.

All About Wholesale Price Index (WPI) and Consumer Price Index (CPI)

	Wholesale Price Index (WPI)	Consumer Price Index (CPI)
Definition	Measures changes in prices of goods sold in bulk by wholesalers	Measures changes in prices of goods and services bought by consumers
Published by	Office of Economic Adviser, Ministry of Commerce and Industry	National Statistical Office (NSO)
Widely used	Yes	Yes
Major criticism	General public does not buy products at wholesale price	–
Base Year	Revised from 2004-05 to 2011-12 in 2017	2012
Types	–	CPI for Industrial Workers (IW)
		CPI for Agricultural Labourer (AL)
		CPI for Rural Labourer (RL)
		CPI (Rural/Urban/Combined)
Compilation Authority	–	Labour Bureau (Ministry of Labour and Employment)
		National Statistical Office (Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation)
Recent Changes/Revisions	–	New series of CPI-IW with base year 2016 released by Ministry of Labour and Employment
Used by	–	Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) for controlling inflation
		Reserve Bank of India (RBI) as key measure of inflation since April 2014