Govt uses 2011-12 as base year for GDP calculation, growth rate during UPA era downgraded

The government on Wednesday lowered the GDP growth rates for a majority of the previous 10 years of the UPA regime, saying the data has been recalibrated to reflect a more appropriate picture of the economy.

The GDP growth rates for FY 2006-12 have been revised using new back series data, Chief Statistician Pravin Srivastava said at a press conference in New Delhi.

While the UPA government used 2004-05 as base year, the government has used 2011-12 as the new base year to downgrade the GDP growth from 2005-06 to 2011-12. 

As per the data released by the Central Statistics Office (CSO), the economy in 2010-11 grew by 8.5% and not 10.3% estimated earlier.

Similarly, growth rate in 2007-08, 2008-09 and 2009-10 have been revised to 7.7%, 3.1% and 7.9% respectively from earlier estimate of 9.8%, 3.9% and 8.5%. 

Growth Rates of GDP at Constant Prices (Source: Central Statistics Office​) 

In a statement, the Ministry of Statistics & Programme Implementation, under which CSO comes, said that the Base year of National Accounts is periodically revised to account for the structural changes that have taken place in the economy over time and to depict a better picture of the economy through macro-economic aggregates like GDP, National Income, consumption expenditure and other related aggregates and indicators. 

"This enables users to assess performance of the economy in real terms by estimating the macro-economic aggregates at the prices of the selected year, known as “base year”," it said. 

"After introduction of the new series of National Accounts (Base 2011-12), back-series estimates of National Accounts Statistics (NAS) are compiled and released for the years preceding the new base year for completeness and comparability with old base data sets," it added. 

The present release gives a snapshot of domestic product, capital formation (at industry/item level) and other macro-economic aggregates till the year 2004- 05, as per the new series of NAS with base year 2011-12, the ministry said. 

(With PTI inputs)