Statistics: IMF's report card need not alarm us

The Fund's criticism of India's macroeconomic estimates is best taken as a cue to further improve the country's statistical framework. Thankfully, remedial work has already begun

- 

Even as we bask in the glory of our 8.2% GDP growth for the second quarter of 2025-26—highest in the past six quarters, fastest among major economies and so on—the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) Annual Staff Report has taken some of the shine off.

In its report for India, part of its 2025 Article IV consultation, released just a few days before the ministry of statistics and programme implementation (MOSPI) released that cracker of a growth figure, the Fund has retained its ‘C’ grade for India's national account statistics (or GDP numbers) on a scale from A to D. In the IMF's view, Indian data has “some shortcomings that somewhat hamper surveillance.”