Covid-19 pandemic to delay consumer price index, GDP base year revision

The recession forecast caused by the Covid-19 pandemic has derailed the government’s plans to carry out the consumer expenditure survey in 2020-21, further delaying the base revision exercise for the country’s key macro-economic indicators and raising data quality concerns.

The revision of the consumer price index and GDP base years from 2011-12 and 2012, respectively, were dependent on the outcomes of the consumer expenditure survey of 2017-18 that the government decided to junk recently. Besides challenges related to carrying out field surveys amid the pandemic, primary concern pertains to the current year not being a normal economic year.

Base year