Question : NEW SERIES OF CPI

(a)whether the Government has recently changed the process for preparing Consumer Price Index (CPI) and is planning to release a new series of CPI for computing retail inflow rate in the country;

(b)if so, the details of the said changes along with the reasons therefor;

(c)whether there has been a huge difference between the Wholesale Price Index (WPI) and CPI in Junuary 2015 in the country;

(d) if so, the details of the said WPI and CPI; and

(e)whether the Government considers the said prices bearable and if so, the reasons therefor?

MINISTER OF STATE (IC) FOR LABOUR AND EMPLOYMENT(SHRI BANDARU DATTATREYA)

(a) & (b): The Central Statistics Office (CSO), Ministry of Statistics and programme Implementation has revised the Base Year of the Consumer Price Index (CPI) from 2010=100 to 2012=100. In this revised series, many methodological changes have been incorporated, in order to make the indices more robust. Weighing diagram is the basic component while computing Indices. Comparison of weighing diagrams of the existing and revised series of CPI is given at Annexure-I.

(c) to (e): The provisional Wholesale Price Index for ‘All Commodities’ for the month of January, 2015 is 178.3 whereas the provisional Consumer Price Indices(Combined) for ‘All Groups” for the month of January, 2015 is 119.4. Details of WPI and CPI is given at Annexure-II.