MoSPI to release IIP for April, CPI for May data today

India's monthly macroeconomic data is set to be released today. Ministry of Statistics & Programme Implementation (MoSPI) will be announcing retail inflation or Consumer Price Index (CPI), and factory output or Index of Industrial Production (IIP) data on Monday. 

The Ministry will release factory output data for the month of April and retail inflation data for the month of May. 

Ministry on May 12 released the new series of Wholesale Price Index (WPI) and IIP with new base year of 2011-12, which was considered as a long pending demand of the economists. 

Till now, IIP and WPI was calculated on 2004-05 as base year. 

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Last week, while releasing the country's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) data, the Ministry had also revealed IIP and CPI data of the last six financial years (2011-12 to 2016-2017) based on the new series calculation. 

Consumer Price Index

Retail inflation or CPI eased to 2.99% in April, helped by smaller rises in food prices. While in the month of March, it stood at 3.81%, rose from 3.65% in February. 

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Hence, based on the new series, IIP, the index of mining, manufacturing and electricity registered growth rates of 7.7%, 1.8% and 4.3% respectively, in Q4 of 2016-17.

The new series on the IIP improved the coverage of industrial activity, realigns weights and reclassifies sub-sectors to better capture the underlying structural dynamics of the sector, and smoothens the impact of lumpy items on the index. As a result, industrial production expanded by 5% during 2016-17 based on the new series (as against 0.7% in the old series).

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As per 77th round of RBI's  industrial outlook survey, it is indicated that overall business sentiment is expected to improve in Q1 of 2017-18 on the back of a sharp pick up in both domestic and external demand.