National Statistical Commission (NSC) chairman Pronab Sen, clearing the air over the much debated calculation of the new GDP numbers has said that Central Statistics Office (CSO) is following the correct methodology for computing national accounts and is on the right track. He said that 'As far as calculation of the GDP numbers is concerned, the CSO is on the right track.'
Dismissing the criticism about the method adopted by the CSO in calculating growth numbers, Sen said that 'They have implemented the procedure and methodology approved by the Commission and followed its instruction for calculating the GDP numbers.”
The commission led by Sen is examining the new growth numbers arrived at by the CSO and is in the process of finalising a report on new GDP numbers and methodology used to calculate it. He however said that, we have not looked into the implication of the new GDP numbers so far. We would soon look at this aspect also and after that we will finalise our report on GDP numbers.
CSO updated the base year used for marking trends in the economy and switched to a market-price calculation of gross domestic product, by which the economy grew by 6.9% in the year that ended last March (2013-14). Using the previous methodology, GDP expansion that year was 4.7%. Since January 2010, the base year for India’s statisticians had been the 12 months that ended in March 2005, but now it was changed to the year that ended March 2012. CSO has estimated economic growth at 7.3 percent for 2014-15, slightly lower than its earlier advance estimate of 7.4 percent. After the changes, various economic experts raised doubts about the accuracy of the new series. Even the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance was not convinced about the new growth projections.
