PIB TrackerWholesale inflation at 9.78% — more than double retail
July's WPI on the 2022-23 base ran at 9.78 per cent against a CPI print of 4.45, with fuel and power at 20.05 per cent — a divergence that says where in the chain the price pressure is sitting.
What happened
- WPI inflation was 9.78 per cent in July 2026 on the 2022-23 base, against 9.87 in June.
- Fuel and Power inflated 20.05 per cent, down sharply from 27.41 in June.
- Primary Articles rose to 8.52 and Manufactured Products to 8.29 per cent.
- The WPI Food Index (weight 24.99 per cent) inflated 6.65 per cent.
- The release also carried the Output Producer Price Index and trial Input PPI estimates.
For Prelims
- WPI base year: 2022-23; the All Commodities index stood at 110.0 in July 2026.
- Three major groups: Primary Articles, Fuel and Power, Manufactured Products — manufactured products carry the largest weight.
- WPI Food Index: weight 24.99 per cent, combining food articles with manufactured food products.
- WPI vs CPI: WPI has no services and no retail margin; CPI includes services and is what the RBI targets.
- PPI: the Producer Price Index measures price change from the producer's perspective and is intended to eventually replace WPI as the headline wholesale measure.
- Output vs Input PPI: output PPI tracks prices received for goods produced; input PPI tracks prices paid for inputs.
- Revision practice: the provisional estimate is revised to final — May moved from 9.68 to 9.88 per cent.
- Response rates: 98.14 per cent for May final against 78.55 per cent for July provisional.
For UPSC: The wholesale half of the inflation picture. Use it for the WPI-CPI divergence and what it says about pass-through, the shift from WPI to a Producer Price Index, fuel and power as the volatile component, and why the RBI targets retail rather than wholesale inflation.
What it is NOT: WPI is not a cost-of-living measure — it excludes services entirely and captures no retail margin, which is why a 9.78 per cent wholesale print sits alongside 4.45 per cent retail inflation without contradiction.
For Mains
Syllabus: GS3.1 · GS3.8 · Linkage L2
Anchor
Wholesale prices rising at more than twice the retail rate means producers are absorbing what consumers have not yet been asked to pay.
Substantiation (data)
WPI at 9.78 per cent against CPI at 4.45, with fuel and power at 20.05 per cent and the WPI food index at 6.65.
Exemplification
Fuel and power decelerated from 27.41 to 20.05 per cent in a month while primary articles and manufactured products both accelerated — the composition shifted, not just the level.
Problematisation
A persistent wholesale-retail gap either compresses producer margins or waits to be passed through; and July's provisional estimate rests on a 78.55 per cent response rate.
Way-forward
Track the emerging Producer Price Index series as the successor measure, and read WPI as a pass-through signal rather than a welfare one.
Position
Two inflation numbers that disagree are not an error; they are a description of who is currently bearing the cost.
Deploys into: Economy + industrial policy (GS3.1, GS3.8) · the WPI-CPI divergence and pass-through, the shift to a Producer Price Index, and fuel and power as the volatile component.
Ministry of Commerce & Industry · 2026-08-14 · PRID 2299305 · PIB source ↗