The central bank has begun computing the Wholesale Price Index (WPI). The index, published for the first time last week, will complement the bank's Consumer Price Index. The base year for the WPI is 1999/2000. By this measure, agricultural product prices have slumped by about 7.7 percent, mainly because of a fall in prices of rice, wheat, corn, vegetables and spices. The index monitors wholesale prices of 18 agricommodities. The WPI is based on statistics collected from 20 market centres across Nepal for a total of 71 products. The bank reported increases in 45 of the 71 products in the last 10 months of the fiscal year.