As part of the ongoing exercise to update the base year of GDP, the government will use several additional expenditure data sets to improve data sources and enable more accurate estimation of the national accounts. Increased use of survey data on household consumption expenditure, direct estimates using output to estimate private final consumption expenditure, and compilation of gross fixed capital formation into intellectual property product (IPP) assets are some of the new changes planned.
In a discussion paper released on Tuesday, the Ministry of Statistics and Program Implementation (MoSPI) proposed improvements in the compilation of GDP from the expenditure approach and sought feedback from stakeholders. The production-side methodology is used to estimate private final consumption expenditure, gross capital formation and government consumption expenditure.
The new GDP series with a base year of 2022-23 is expected to be released on February 27, 2026. “GDP retrospective series estimates are historical economic data points that have been recalculated to be consistent with a more recent and revised methodology and base year,” the ministry said in the discussion paper, adding that it plans to release the revised base year GDP estimate retrospective series within a year.
The ministry had previously published on November 21 the first discussion paper on changes in the compilation of aggregates based on the production/income approach.
An Advisory Committee on National Accounts Statistics (ACNAS), under the chairmanship of Prof. BN Goldar, was constituted to advise the MoSPI, among other things, on the inclusion of new data sources to improve national accounts estimates and the methodology of compilation and presentation of national accounts statistics for economic analysis and policy formulation.
