New Series Of Consumer Price Index For Industrial Workers

New Delhi, Mar 9 (UNI) A new series of the Consumer Price Index Numbers for Industrial Worker (CPI-IW) on base 2001=100 has been released by the Labour Bureau with effect from January, 2006.

The new series replaces the CPI-IW 1982 series.

With the introduction of the new series, the All India Consumer Price Index for Industrial Workers for January 2006 stands at the level of 119 and Linking Factor for conversion of new series index to previous series on base 1982=100 is 4.63. The new series is more representative in character and reflects the latest consumption pattern of the industrial workers. The 2001 series covers 78 centres, 8 centres more than those covered under 1982 series.

The sample size for the conduct of Working Class Family Income and Expenditure Survey, on the basis of which weighting diagrams have been derived, has been increased to 41,040 families from 32,616 families in the 1982 series.

The number of selected markets for collection of retail price data has also been increased to 289 markets under the 2001 series as against 226 markets covered in the 1982 series. The number of items directly retained in the index basket has increased to approximate 370 items as against 280 items approximately in the 1982 series.

The CPI-IW is the single most important price statistics, which has financial implications. It is primarily used to regulate the Dearness Allowance of government employees and the workers in the industrial sector. It is also used in fixation and revision of minimum wages in scheduled employments besides measuring the inflation in retail prices.

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