Analysis of growth, instability and time series decomposition of price indices of pulses in India

Price analysis of pulses helps to understand trends, variability and seasonality in price series which is useful for different stakeholders such as farmers, consumers, traders and policy makers. Monthly Wholesale Price Indices (WPI) from the Office of the Economic Adviser, Ministry of Commerce & Industry and Monthly Consumer Price Indices (CPI) from the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation were retrieved and analyzed using R software. Time series decomposition was carried out to estimate trends, variability and seasonal components in both WPI and CPI series. Seasonal indices revealed that price indices of pulses were higher during the months of October and November along with higher variability during these months.