More questions on GDP

Next govt must prioritise restoration of faith in official data

Indian official data for both employment and output has increasingly begun to be questioned both internally and internationally. This concern began to be expressed first when the “new series” data for the gross domestic product (GDP) was released in 2015, which revised growth sharply upwards. This growth continued to be relatively robust — according to the government, the fastest among large economies — even as other high-frequency indicators of economic activity appeared to contradict that story. Part of what may have gone wrong has been reported in the Mint newspaper. The crucial difference between the “new series” GDP data and