Calendar rejigged: GDP numbers to be released after Budget

The government has rejigged its data calendar to declare the national account statistics to bring an order in their release timings.

As per the new calendar, the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) will from this year release the first revised estimates of national income, consumption expenditure, saving and capital formation of the previous fiscal year on the last day of February against the last working day of January till now.

The aim is to align the timing of the release of key official data and avoid confusion before the Budget, which is announced on February 1, officials said.

"The release date of January 31 has been changed because it came just two days before the Budget and these numbers can't be incorporated in it," said an official.

Moreover, the first advance estimates for the ongoing fiscal year are announced on January 7, leading to the release of several estimates in a short span of time.

India's economy is expected to grow 7% in FY23.

Till now, the ministry released the first revised estimates on the last working day of January. It will now release the data for FY22 on February 28, along with the second revised estimates for 2020-21, third revised estimates for 2019-20 and the third quarter estimates for FY23.

The first revised estimate of national accounts data is crucial as it has details on India's savings, a crucial indicator of the country's growth.

India's rate of gross saving to gross national disposable income for 2020-21 was 27.8% against 29.4% for 2019-20.

"One option was to advance the data release to January 15, but that would mean compromising on comprehensive data. So, February 28 has been finalised and it would be released along with the second revised estimates," the official said, adding that some stakeholders had criticised releasing the data so close to the Budget as it led to confusion.

"The reported alignment of the release of the first revised estimates and second advance estimates would provide an appropriate signal of growth between the two years, which would be helpful to policymakers," said Aditi Nayar, chief economist at ratings firm ICRA.

The MoSPI has recently made public the methodology to estimate the national accounts as other ministries including finance had said that it was not easily accessible.