NEW DELHI – India is set to update the base year for calculating gross domestic product (GDP) to fiscal 2023 from fiscal 2012, Minister for Statistics Rao Inderjit Singh told Parliament on Monday.
An advisory committee on national accounts statistics has been formed to identify new data sources and advise on the methodology for the revised series, the minister informed lawmakers. The committee will comprise representatives from the federal and state governments as well as the central bank, he added.
Several private economists have said that the current GDP estimates, which rely on a base year over a decade old fail to fully capture the structural shifts in the economy, particularly the rise of digital platforms and impact of the pandemic.
The government intends to release GDP and consumer price index (CPI) data under the new series starting in early 2026, government officials have said earlier.
India’s economic growth slowed more than expected to 5.4% year-on-year in the three months ended September 2024, with weaker expansion in manufacturing and consumption putting additional pressure on the central bank to consider rate cuts.
(Reporting by Manoj Kumar; Editing by Janane Venkatraman)
