India to Continue Quarterly GDP Releases Despite Calls for Faster Data, MoSPI Cites Limitations

New Delhi: The statistics ministry will continue to release the gross domestic product (GDP) data every quarter despite calls for more frequent release of data, two people aware of the matter told Mint, potentially narrowing investors' ability to make more informed investment decisions.

"It is not possible to give out GDP data monthly; instead of the ongoing practice of releasing this data quarterly," said one of the persons cited above, a senior official, who spoke under the condition of anonymity.

"Some key data sets to calculate the GDP are only available every quarter, which include corporate earnings, and financial data from the formal sector. While there was a suggestion to reduce the lag in GDP data and make it monthly instead of quarterly, it isn't possible to do that at the moment," the person mentioned above said.

Leading economists, industry experts and even government officials have urged the ministry of statistics and programme implementation (MoSPI) to shorten the time lag in releasing critical macroeconomic data such as GDP figures.

They argue that timely data is essential for informed investment, business strategies, and policy decisions.

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The demand was made by experts last month, when MoSPI officials met with forecasters, economists and experts in growth and inflation in Mumbai to seek their suggestions for making key macroeconomic data more robust.

Recently, Ajay Seth, secretarym department of economic affairs, emphasized the need for timely and consistent data, noting that it is crucial for enhancing clarity in investment, business strategies, and policymaking.

‘MoSPI working on reducing time lag on important data’

"The MoSPI is working on reducing the time lag on important data. However, we can reduce the time lag on data sets which are directly released by the MoSPI, which include the CPI (retail inflation), labour employment data, etc.," the first person mentioned above said.

"It will be difficult for MoSPI to endeavour to reduce the lag on data sets where the MoSPI is dependent on other agencies for the frequency of release, like industrial production data, etc.," the person mentioned above added.

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A MoSPI spokesperson didn't respond to emailed queries.

The move comes amid MoSPI initiating the preliminary exercise for conducting the Eighth Economic Census, which will be carried out from April 20245.

The 80th Round of the National Sample Survey (NSS) – another key dataset – is also expected to be launched by January 2025. It is likely to include three one-year surveys on health, domestic tourism, and household travel.

"The Eight Economic Census will take about six-to-eight months to complete. It should be ready by the end of the calendar year 2025 or latest by the end of fiscal year 2026," the first person mentioned above said.

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India's economic census is a comprehensive survey of the economy, tracking all entrepreneurial units engaged in economic activities across both agricultural and non-agricultural sectors.

It covers businesses involved in the production and distribution of goods and services.