Government would come out by year-end with a new index to compute price movement on a realistic basis by more than doubling the list of items to 980 from the present wholesale price-based inflation that has come in for criticism for not capturing the total picture.

The new WPI series with base year 2004-05 would give inflation figure on a monthly basis, with the exception of price movements of essential commodities like agricultural products which would be continued to be released weekly.

The number of items which would be part of the index would be doubled to about 980 from 435 at present, a senior government official said.

The increase in number would largely include items from the manufacturing sector. In existing scheme of things, the sector has a weightage of over 63 per cent in the index.

Price quotations would also go up from the existing 1,918 to 6,000 which will give better picture of the price variation. Thus the revised series will have a substantially updated and representative basket of commodities as well as their varieties/grades and markets, he said.

The coverage of the new series has been rationalised by incorporating important new items, dropping unimportant items and amalgamating items with those to which they are akin, the official said.

The 2004-05 base year will be considered to capture the price variation in commodities over the next 10 years, he added.

Inflation, the silent killer