NEW DELHI, October 12 — The Office of the Economic Adviser, Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), Ministry of Commerce and Industry, on Monday released the official Wholesale Price Index (WPI) data for September 2026, reporting that headline wholesale inflation moderated to 1.84 percent (provisional) compared to 2.04 percent recorded in the preceding month.
According to the official price index bulletin, the sequential moderation was predominantly driven by lower wholesale prices of primary food articles—notably seasonal vegetables, pulses, and cereals—coupled with steady domestic fuel and power tariffs and deflated imported input costs across manufactured goods. The index for Primary Articles contracted by 0.35 percent month-on-month, while the Fuel & Power sub-index fell by 0.81 percent.
Commerce Ministry analysts observed that above-normal southwest monsoon distributions and brisk kharif harvesting arrivals across major agricultural APMC mandis effectively stabilized farmgate realizations. Softening global metal and raw chemical quotations further contained wholesale factory-gate input price pressures.
The statutory and statistical architecture of the Wholesale Price Index (Base Year 2011-12, published monthly by the Office of the Economic Adviser), the WPI commodity basket weighting (Manufactured Products at 64.23%, Primary Articles at 22.62%, and Fuel & Power at 13.15%), differences between WPI and the Consumer Price Index (CPI published by NSO, which incorporates services and serves as the RBI's inflation target anchor), and Core Inflation are foundational topics across UPSC Civil Services (GS-III: Indian Economy) and RBI Grade B examinations.