Govt revises GDP base year to 2022-23; new series likely to be implemented by 2026

The government has decided to revise the base year for calculating Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and other national accounts statistics from 2011-12 to 2022-23, the first such update in over a decade.

In a written reply to the Rajya Sabha, Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Statistics and Programme Implementation Rao Inderjit Singh on Monday said an Advisory Committee on National Accounts Statistics (ACNAS) has been constituted to guide the exercise.

"Steps, such as constitution of ACNAS, standardization of data structure to promote harmonized quality reporting across National Statistical System and use of administrative data are the steps taken by the Government to improve the statistical system," the ministry said in a release.

The revised series is expected to be implemented from February 2026.

“The next base year will be 2022-23, and the revised series will be implemented by February 2026,” MoSPI Secretary Saurabh Garg said last week, adding that MoSPI is also working on introducing monthly estimates of the Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) starting January next year.

The Gross Domestic Product (GDP) data based on the 2011-12 series was released in January 2015.

Updating the base year ensures that GDP estimates reflect structural changes in the economy, shifts in consumption patterns, and the inclusion of emerging sectors.

The first official estimates of national income were prepared by the Central Statistical Organisation (CSO) with base year 1948-49 for the estimates at constant prices.

Garg said the ministry is in process of starting procedure of economic census.

He also pitched for promoting data driven decision making and favoured better data governance by way of uniform guidelines.