Key Points:
- India launched a new GDP series with a 2022–23 base year to better capture digital payments, GST data, and informal sector activity.
- The updated methodology expands price deflators from 180 to over 500 items and integrates real-time data sources for improved accuracy.
- Revised informal sector surveys and broader data inputs aim to align national accounts with structural changes and support better policy decisions.
India rolled out a new GDP series with a 2022-23 base year on Thursday, replacing 2011-12 benchmarks with GST, UPI, and expanded price data to better measure a transformed, digital, and informal economy.
India on Thursday introduced a revised gross domestic product series that statisticians and economists say better reflects structural changes in the economy over the past decade.
The new GDP series, with 2022-23 as the base year, replaces a framework that relied on price benchmarks from 2011-12, limited deflator data, and corporate filings that critics said skewed toward large firms. Officials say the revision incorporates real-time Goods and Services Tax data, digital payments information, and updated surveys of the informal sector.
Old Benchmarks Struggle to Track Rapid Economic Change
For years, India’s quarterly new GDP series estimates were built on price deflators drawn from roughly 180 items calibrated to 2011-12 consumption and production patterns. Corporate sector data largely came from filings with the Ministry of Corporate Affairs, a database some economists described as incomplete and difficult to verify.
The informal sector, which employs more than 90 percent of India’s workforce, was estimated using surveys that were nearly a decade old. Analysts said that the approach risked understating shifts in small enterprises, self-employment, and gig work.
“Base year revisions are not cosmetic,” said a Mumbai-based economist who tracks national accounts data. “They determine what we count, how we deflate prices, and which sectors appear to drive growth.”
Since 2011-12, India has implemented the nationwide Goods and Services Tax, expanded digital payments through the Unified Payments Interface, and rolled out production-linked incentive schemes aimed at boosting manufacturing. E-commerce and platform-based work have also grown rapidly.
New Series Expands Data Sources and Deflators
Officials say the revised series expands the basket of items used to calculate price deflators to more than 500, up from about 180 in the previous framework. Deflators are used to adjust nominal output for inflation to arrive at real GDP.
The updated methodology also integrates GST data to better capture value addition across supply chains. Economists have long argued that GST filings offer granular, transaction-level information that can improve measurement of formal sector activity.
Digital payments data, including transactions conducted through the Unified Payments Interface, is expected to provide additional insight into consumption and services activity, particularly among small businesses.
“The economy of 2026 is not the economy of 2012,” said an economist at a New Delhi-based policy think tank. “If measurement does not evolve, policy risks responding to outdated signals.”
Informal Sector Surveys Updated
The revision also includes updated surveys of the informal sector, which accounts for a substantial share of employment and output. Under the earlier series, informal sector estimates were often extrapolated from older benchmarks.
Analysts said more current survey data could change estimates of growth rates, sectoral contributions, and productivity trends.
India periodically revises its GDP base year to reflect changes in production and consumption patterns. The shift to 2022-23 marks the first comprehensive attempt to incorporate the effects of GST, digital payments infrastructure, and post-pandemic structural adjustments into the national accounts.
Economists caution that comparisons between the old and new series may show differences in growth rates or sector shares, a common outcome when statistical methodologies change.
Still, they say improved measurement can strengthen fiscal and monetary policy decisions. “Good policy depends on good data,” the Mumbai-based economist said. “This revision aims to align statistics with economic reality.”
The government has not indicated that the revision signals any immediate change in policy stance. Instead, officials describe it as a technical update designed to enhance accuracy and transparency in national income accounting.
