E-Paper
‘Base year changed, data revised’: Govt defends 7.8% growth amid GDP rate row, explains new calculation method
Critics and Opposition leaders questioned the revision of Q1 FY26 GDP from ₹86.05 lakh crore to ₹80 lakh crore, saying it made growth look higher.
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The government has clarified that it did not revise down Q1 2025-26 GDP at current prices from ₹86 lakh crore to ₹80 lakh crore to make the current year’s GDP look better. India recorded a GDP growth rate of 7.8% in the April-June 2026 quarter, the government said on Tuesday.
The clarification comes amid critics and the Opposition pointing out that the government revised GDP at current prices for Q1 FY26 from ₹86.05 lakh crore under the earlier 2011-12 base-year series to ₹80 lakh crore under the latest 2022-23 series to show a higher growth rate.
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A former finance secretary said, "If you had not revised last year's GDP, the growth in current prices would have been only 2.6 per cent." The Opposition flagged this remark and said that the government used a new series to make the current growth look better.
In a statement released by the Ministry of Statistics & Programme Implementation, the government said that the change in the estimate of Q1 2025-26 does not represent a downward revision made to make the current year’s growth appear higher. Rather, the revision is a result of successive methodological and data revisions to the GDP series.
Let's understand how the government calculated the Q1 GDP numbers for FY 2027:
1. The release said that the government had released the first-quarter GDP estimate of FY 2026-26 at ₹86.05 lakh crore. The estimate, the government said, was initially based on the then-prevailing 2011-12 base-year series.
2. But in February this year, the ministry introduced the new GDP series with 2022-23 as the base year. As per that, 'the GDP estimates for the entire time series are comprehensively revised to incorporate updated data sources, improved methodologies, revised coverage and other relevant information'.
3. The ministry said that new indicators and data were incorporated into the GDP compilation. Their incorporation necessitated updating the relevant GDP estimates from 2022-23 onwards. As a result, the Q1 2025-26 GDP at current prices was revised to ₹80.00 lakh crore.
4. The government said that the movement from ₹86.05 lakh crore to ₹80.00 lakh crore was due to successive revisions to the GDP series arising from the change in base year, incorporation of improved data sources and methodologies, and updation of available indicators, and was not a deliberate attempt to downward the revision of last year’s GDP to mechanically increase the current year’s growth rate.
5. Since the base year has been changed, it would be incorrect to compare the figure of ₹86.05 lakh crore, based on the 2011-12 series, with the current Q1 2026-27 estimate under the revised 2022-23 series, the government said. Hence, the correct way to arrive at a figure based on the new series would be to compare ₹80 lakh crore with ₹88.27 lakh crore, which is the Q1 figure for the first quarter of 2026-27, the govt clarified.
