![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/1x1_spacer.png\" "\\"The")
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\n The International Monetary Fund logo is seen outside the headquarters building in Washington. Image used for representation purpose only.
\n | Photo Credit: Reuters\n <\/p>\n
The International Monetary Fund\u2019s (IMF) annual review has given India\u2019s national accounts statistics, which includes key figures such as Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and Gross Value Added (GVA), a grade of \u2018C\u2019, the second-lowest grade there is.\u00a0<\/p>\n
According to the IMF, this grade means the data available \u201chave some shortcomings that somewhat hamper surveillance\u201d. This is of particular significance as the government will release the national accounts data for Q2 of this financial year on Friday (November 28, 2028).<\/p>\n
\u201cNational accounts data are available at adequate frequency and timeliness and provide broadly adequate granularity,\u201d the IMF noted in its annual Article IV assessment of India\u2019s economic framework. \u201cHowever, some methodological weaknesses somewhat hamper surveillance and warrant an overall sectoral rating for the national accounts of C.\u201d<\/p>\n
Overall, across all data categories, India has received a grade of \u2018B\u2019. There are four grades in total: A, B, C and D.<\/p>\n
\u2018Sizeable discrepancies\u2019<\/p>\n
For example, it highlighted an outdated base year of 2011-12 on which the data is based, and the use of wholesale price indices as data sources for deflators due to a lack of producer prices indices.<\/p>\n
It further pointed out periodic \u201csizeable discrepancies\u201d between the production and expenditure approaches of measuring GDP, \u201cthat may indicate the need to enhance the coverage of the expenditure approach data and the informal sector\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Indian government has, from the beginning, used the income approach to measure GDP by measuring the incomes of the government, people, and companies. However, it also provides an estimate based on the expenditure approach, which attempts to quantify GDP through the spending done by these entities.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Often, due to the differing data sources and their coverage, the two estimates of GDP differ, which has attracted criticism from some economists.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Finally, the IMF also highlighted the lack of seasonally adjusted data and \u201croom for improvement of other statistical techniques\u201d used in the quarterly national accounts data.<\/p>\n
\u201cOn granularity, further breakdown of Gross Fixed Capital Formation by institutional sector (published with a significant lag) and further disaggregation of the quarterly production and expenditure approach estimates would allow for a more detailed analysis of economic trends,\u201d the IMF said.<\/p>\n
Inflation data also has issues<\/p>\n
Regarding India\u2019s main inflation measure, the Consumer Price Index, the IMF graded India a \u2018B\u2019, which means the data provided \u201chave some shortcomings but are broadly adequate for surveillance\u201d.<\/p>\n
It said that while the CPI data scores well on its frequency and timeliness, coming as it does once a month and with only a month\u2019s lag, the rating of \u2018B\u2019 reflects the outdated CPI base year, items basket, and weights (set in 2011-12), \u201cimplying that the CPI basket likely fails to accurately represent current spending habits\u201d.<\/p>\n
It is important to note that the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation is currently working on updating the GDP and CPI base years and methodology to make them more up to date. The new series of both datasets are expected to be released in early or mid 2026.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The other facets of government data \u2014 government finance statistics, external sector statistics, monetary and financial statistics, and inter-sectoral consistency \u2014 were all scored \u2018B\u2019, with the IMF pointing out strengths and weaknesses in each of them.<\/p>\n
Notably, India\u2019s national accounts statistics received a \u2018C\u2019 grade in last year\u2019s review as well, with the IMF noting this year that \u201cdata weaknesses have remained broadly unchanged\u201d since the last report, but acknowledged that plans to upgrade real sector statistics \u201care advancing\u201d.<\/p>\n
Published – November 27, 2025 07:04 pm IST<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The International Monetary Fund logo is seen outside the headquarters building in Washington. Image used for representation purpose…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":597724,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3090],"tags":[51,1700,28144,187810,187807,187808,187806,12705,187809,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-597723","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-economy","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-economy","10":"tag-gross-domestic-product","11":"tag-gross-value-added","12":"tag-imf-cites-shortcomings-in-capturing-informal-sector","13":"tag-imf-cites-spending-patterns-in-annual-review","14":"tag-imf-rates-indias-gdp-data-a-c","15":"tag-international-monetary-fund","16":"tag-international-monetary-funds-imf-annual-review","17":"tag-uk","18":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115623298315616506","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/597723","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=597723"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/597723\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/597724"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=597723"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=597723"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=597723"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}