No weekly inflation figures now onwards

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The government today decided to do away with the practice of releasing the weekly food inflation data as the figures were not portraying the "holistic" picture of the price situation.

The government henceforth will only release the monthly headline inflation figures, sources said.

The decision, according to sources, was taken by the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA), charied by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

"There used to be lot of variation in the weekly food inflation numbers and the monthly data, that is why it has been decided to discontinue the practice," an official said, adding that the weekly data were not giving any "clear and holistic" picture of the inflation situation.

The Ministry of Commerce and Industry compiles and releases the Wholesale Price Index (WPI) data on primary articles and fuel and power every week, mostly on Thursdays. The primary articles include food items.

The government also releases monthly data on overall or headline inflation measured on WPI. The food inflation has a weight of about 14% in the overall inflation.

Food inflation stood at -0.42 for the weed ended January 7. Headline for December was 7.47%.

In September 2010, the government had changed the base year for calculating WPI to 2004-05 from 1993-94.

The new WPI series has 241 more items than in the old index. With the additional items, the WPI now measures a total of 676 items against 435 earlier.

Earlier, the government used to release the overall infaltion data on weekly basis. But in October 2009, it changed the calender and decided to release the comprehensive data on inflation on a monthly basis, but continued to release price movement of primary articles, including food, and fuel every week.