India's new GDP series improves estimates but also has grey areas

We await back data to analyse trends in the context of changes in the relative size of broad sectors

- HIMANSHU is associate professor at Jawaharlal Nehru University and visiting fellow at the Centre de Sciences Humaines, New Delhi.

Last week, India’s statistics ministry released its first estimates of gross domestic product (GDP) and other associated national accounts data with 2022-23 as the base year for a new GDP series.

This is the second major economic indicator after the consumer price index (CPI) to have seen a base revision. Both these indicators had been using 2011-12 as base year, rendering them more than a decade old. But similar to the CPI revision, the one in the national accounts is also not just a technical re-basing. It also makes several methodological changes and uses new as well as revised sources.