New GDP series to spur IMF rating upgrade

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is set to upgrade its ‘C’ rating for India’s national accounts data adequacy soon after the Centre unveils the new series of data to track retail inflation and economic output in February 2026.

- HIMANSHI BHARDWAJ

The rethink in the IMF is likely driven by recent consultations by its staff with Indian officials that highlighted the ongoing improvements in India’s real sector statistics along with issues they raised in the Fund’s data adequacy assessment of its current data series.

The IMF has rated India’s national accounts data with a ‘C’ grade in its Data Adequacy Assessment (DAA) for the second consecutive year, in the Fund’s 2025 Article IV report on the country released this week. The ‘C’ rating is the second-lowest level in a four-tier scale of A to D, and denotes that “the data provided to the Fund have some shortcomings that somewhat hamper surveillance”.

India’s executive director on the IMF board Urjit Patel, and other officials, in a November 21 statement included in the same report, stated that they appreciate the Fund's listing of changes in India’s official data since the last DAA consultation, and “the assurance that DAA ratings will be reassessed once the updated national accounts series are published in February 2026”. “Staff have observed that India’s official statistics while having some shortcomings are broadly adequate for surveillance,” the statement said.