India to roll out new wholesale inflation series, producer price indices on June 15

In a major overhaul of the country's inflation measurement framework, India will revise the base year of the Wholesale Price Index (WPI) from 2011-12 to 2022-23 and launch a new set of producer price indices (PPIs) from June 15.

The revised WPI series and the new Output Producer Price Index (OPPI), Trial Input Producer Price Index (IPPI), and Service Producer Price Index (Service PPI) would be released on June 15.

The decision to revise the WPI base year and compile PPIs was approved by the competent authority on May 25, following recommendations cleared by the Technical Advisory Committee on Statistics of Price and Cost of Living and subsequently presented to the National Statistical Commission.

The revised WPI series, with base year 2022-23, will replace the existing 2011-12 series.

However, considering the extensive use of WPI in price-escalation clauses across contracts, the government will continue publishing the index alongside PPIs for five years before discontinuing it.

"The transition from WPI to PPI is in alignment with the global best practices adopted by advanced economies and the recommendations of the International Monetary Fund (IMF)," the Ministry of Commerce & Industry said in a statement.

The OPPI and Service PPI will be compiled using basic prices, excluding taxes and trade and transport margins, while the Input PPI will be based on purchasers' prices.

The new framework would provide a more comprehensive picture of price movements faced by producers, including the extent to which increases in input costs are passed on to output prices, according to an official statement.

The first phase of Service PPI will cover seven sectors -- banking, securities transactions, insurance, management of pension funds, railways, air passenger transport and telecom services.

Additional services will be included in subsequent phases depending on data availability.

The new series incorporates solar, wind and nuclear power under the electricity category.

Crude petroleum and natural gas have also been shifted from the "Primary Articles" group to the "Fuel and Power" category to create a more coherent structure for tracking energy prices.

The government has also revamped the methodology used for compiling the index.

The revised series also introduces chain-based short-term index compilation in place of the long-term formulation used earlier and adopts a "targeted mean imputation" method for handling missing price data instead of the carry-forward method.

India's WPI-based inflation accelerated to 8.3 % in April 2026, the highest level in three-and-a-half years, driven largely by soaring crude oil and natural gas prices. Inflation in the crude petroleum and natural gas category stood at 67.2% during the month, while wholesale food inflation remained relatively subdued at 2%,