Which major group recorded the highest year on year inflation in the Wholesale Price Index for August 2026?

The correct answer is 9.92 per cent. That is the provisional year on year wholesale inflation rate announced for August 2026 on the base year 2022-23, and the index for all commodities stood at 110.8 in the same month. Option B is wrong because 9.78 per cent was the rate for July 2026, the month before; since the two figures are close and are printed side by side in the release, candidates who read carelessly often pick the earlier one. Option A is wrong because 8.37 per cent is the inflation rate of the Manufactured Products group alone, not the headline rate for all commodities. Option D is not a figure given in the release at all. A further detail worth carrying into the examination hall is that the final estimate for June 2026 was revised upward from 9.87 per cent to 9.97 per cent, which shows that provisional wholesale numbers are routinely corrected when the response rate improves.

The correct answer is a weight of 24.99 per cent with inflation of 7.05 per cent. The WPI Food Index is not a major group on its own; it is built by taking Food Articles out of the Primary Articles group and the manufacture of food products out of the Manufactured Products group, and putting them together. Option B is wrong on both counts: 22.93 per cent is the inflation of the Fuel and Power group rather than any weight, and 6.65 per cent was the Food Index rate in July 2026, the previous month. Option C gives the right weight but attaches the headline all commodities rate of 9.92 per cent to it, which belongs to the whole index and not to food alone. Option D invents a weight that does not appear in the release. Note the direction of movement as well, since food inflation in the wholesale series climbed from 6.65 per cent in July to 7.05 per cent in August.

The correct answer is the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, which issued these estimates for the month and for the cumulative period of the financial year. Option A is wrong because the finance ministry handles taxation, expenditure and the budget rather than the monthly trade release, although it does publish revenue collections. Option C is wrong because the statistics ministry brings out national income and labour force data, not the export and import bulletin. Option D is wrong because corporate affairs deals with company law and registration. One more caution is worth remembering with this release: the services figures for the latest month are an estimate, since the released data for that sector covers only the previous month, and the earlier months of the year have been revised using quarterly balance of payments data.

The correct answer is electronic goods, whose exports in the month climbed from 2.93 billion dollars a year earlier to 5.55 billion dollars, a jump the release lists first among the drivers of merchandise export growth. Option A is wrong; engineering goods did grow, but at a far smaller rate, rising from 9.87 billion dollars to 12.32 billion. Option B is wrong as well; petroleum products grew strongly in the month, yet their rate was lower than that of electronics. Option D is wrong because marine products appear only in the longer list of commodity groups with positive growth and are nowhere near the top. The lesson for an aspirant is to attach the highest growth rate of the month to electronics, and to remember that the release names the drivers in descending order of importance.

The correct answer is 399.27 billion US dollars, the cumulative figure for merchandise and services exports taken together over the five months of the current financial year covered by the release. Option A is the same cumulative export figure for the corresponding months of the previous financial year, and it is the number against which the growth rate is worked out, so it belongs in the comparison rather than in the answer. Option C is the cumulative import figure for the current period, which is larger than exports and therefore leaves a trade deficit. Option D is merchandise exports alone, that is goods without services, and a candidate who forgets that the headline number combines both will fall for it. Fix the pair together: the export value and the growth rate that goes with it.