RBI Deputy Governor Poonam Gupta on Wednesday underscored the central bank’s push to strengthen India’s statistical architecture, saying the forthcoming base revision of major economic indicators is central to accurate policy formulation.
“The base revision of GDP, CPI and IIP is not merely a technical exercise, it is of foundational importance,” she said at the pre-release consultative workshop on base revision of Consumer Price Index (CPI), Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and Index of Industrial Production (IIP) in Mumbai, noting that “our consumption and production baskets are changing rapidly” as global and domestic supply chains realign.
Gupta emphasised that India’s statistical ecosystem rests on “a long tradition of professionalism, transparency, and methodological rigour,” but must now evolve in step with the pace of economic transformation. “Our statistical offerings, data and techniques must keep pace with an economy that is growing and evolving rapidly,” she added.
Highlighting the Reserve Bank’s expanding data responsibilities, she noted that the Database on Indian Economy (DBIE) now hosts “more than 2,000 statistical tables containing over 20,000 individual data series.”
The RBI also “curates, compiles and disseminates a vast amount of economic and financial data,” including surveys that provide “early signals of shifts in economic activity and sentiments.”
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Gupta said the central bank continues to accelerate publication cycles, pointing out that the time lag for releasing quarterly balance of payments data has already fallen from 90 days to around 60 days. “We will endeavour to prepare and release the monthly BoP statistics at a lag of ~40 days,” she said.
She added that enterprise surveys are being “comprehensively reviewed,” while household surveys are under a “fresh evaluation to address the gap between perceived and realised inflation.”
On inflation forecasting, Gupta stressed that the RBI uses a multi-layered approach, noting that “forecast errors are a common feature around the world.”
She noted that “as far as the inflation forecasts used in the MPC resolution are concerned, they are unbiased,” adding that the bi-monthly statement provides projections for both inflation and growth four quarters ahead.
Gupta concluded that the Indian economy has exhibited both resilience and agility, and said the RBI’s statistical systems will continue to adapt to ensure high-quality, timely data for policy decisions.