{"id":4234,"date":"2025-12-02T08:04:42","date_gmt":"2025-12-02T02:34:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ravi.rajiniravi.com\/blog\/?p=4234"},"modified":"2025-12-03T23:47:39","modified_gmt":"2025-12-03T18:17:39","slug":"the-issue-with-indias-gdp","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ravi.rajiniravi.com\/blog\/2025\/12\/the-issue-with-indias-gdp\/","title":{"rendered":"The issue with India’s GDP"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The IMF gave a grade C to the way India\u2019s GDP is calculated. While the report titled \u20182025 Article IV consultation<\/a>\u2018 is 116 pages long, the annex VII made all the headlines where National accounts is graded \u2018C\u2019 citing data Issues, namely (i) an outdated base year (2011\/12), (ii) use of wholesale price indices as data sources for deflators due to the lack of producer prices indices, and excessive use of single deflation, which may introduce cyclical biases, (iii) at times sizable discrepancies between production and expenditure approaches, that may indicate the need to enhance the coverage of the expenditure approach data and the informal sector, and (iv) lack of seasonally adjusted data and room for improvement of other statistical techniques used in the quarterly national accounts compilation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This has been long pointed by experts. I find the following series of interviews in The Wire<\/a>\u2018s YT channel with Pronob Sen, India\u2019s former Chief Statistician especially enlightening on the way India\u2019s GDP issues is calculated and all it\u2019s issues (there are also a few which talk about how the economic indicators and what it tells about the state of economy). They are ordered by the date of the interview with the last ones being the first and I have pointed out the key issues discussed with relevant links below the embedded playlist.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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