Inflation is one of the biggest stories of recent weeks, and has received a great deal of attention from the media and politicians. At the same time, inflation is an economic problem that the average person meets on a daily basis in terms of higher prices, particularly of food products.
How is inflation measured?
In India, there are two broad measures of inflation - based on the consumer price index (CPI) and based on the wholesale price index (WPI). Of the two, the latter has a higher profile because it is measured every week. When you read about inflation rising to 7%, it is probably referring to inflation based on WPI.
WPI is based on the wholesale prices of 435 items ranging from agricultural commodities like wheat, rice, groundnuts etc to manufactured products like steel, cement etc. A single index number is calculated based on those prices, and the inflation rate is calculated by comparing the most recent index number with that of a year ago.
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