Measuring India’s GDP growth: Unpacking the Analytics & Data Issues behind a Controversy that Refuses to Go Away

R Nagaraj and T. Srinivasan

India Policy Forum, 2017, vol. 13, issue 1, 73-128

Abstract: The Indian Central Statistics Office’s (CSO’s) new series of National Accounts Statistics (NAS) with 2011–12 as the base year—and incorporating methodological changes drawn—from the UN System of National Accounts (SNA)—has been criticized for reporting annual gross domestic product (GDP) growth rates widely different from the older series, and being at variance with other available macroeconomic indicators. Critics have raised many analytical and empirical issues that in their view were not adequately addressed by CSO and which could have caused the discrepancy in growth rates. However, CSO has claimed the new series to be a distinct improvement since it uses new, large, data sources and incorporates advances in methodology. Taking stock of this debate, the paper makes an overall assessment of the new NAS and offers recommendations for going forward.

Keywords: National Income; National Accounts Statistics; India; GDP Growth; Base Year; Consumption; Saving; Investment; SNA 2008; MCA 21; CSO (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: E01 E02 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
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