excluding closed ones, and including new items and keeping out old ones. Calculated in accordance (अनुसार) with the new series, while the IIP rose 2.7 per cent in March, against 1.9 per cent in February, the WPI inflation rate declined to a four-month low of 3.85 per cent in April, against 5.29 per cent in the previous month. The consumer price index (CPI), which had moved to the new series earlier, declined to a record 2.99 per cent in April, against 3.81 per cent in the previous month. “The improvement in IIP growth in March 2017 relative to February 2017 on a year-on-year basis, resonates with the trends available from several other early indicators, spanning mining, electricity, manufacturing, trade, transport and financing,” said Aditi Nayar, principal economist, Icra.

Grossdeflator. However, it might be a little early to say whether the impact could be in the upward direction, said Soumya Kanti Ghosh, chief economic advisor, SBI.

The IIP data of November 2016 did not reflect the impact of demonetization, as the effect came with a lag. However, it was visible in the four months from December to March, as the IIP did not return to the level seen in November, when it had grown by 5.7 per cent. The same trend was found even in the old series, by which IIP growth in November was 5.6 per cent, the highest in the post-demonetisation period.

“There seems to be some visible effect of demonetisation in the new IIP series. Usually the last quarter tends to show the highest growth,” said