Misleading GDP data: PM Modi's narrative of 7% growth has done real damage

For four years, India has battled the suspicion that its new and improved GDP series is a rose-tinted view of reality. Now that Narendra Modi is prime minister for a second term, he must see that battle for what it is: a lost cause.

Unlike harmless advertising puffery around a toothpaste that kills 99.9 per cent of germs, the narrative of 7 per cent growth has done real damage.This week, a top former government adviser provided a statistical estimate. The actual GDP growth rate between 2012 and 2017, according to Arvind Subramanian’s working paper for Harvard University, may have been 2.5 percentage points lower than the official 7% rate.

India’s level of economic output may be overstated by anywhere between