Centre revises calendar, MoSPI to give GDP numbers post Budget in 2023

MoSPI to release first revised estimates of national income, consumption expenditure, saving, and capital formation of the previous fiscal year on the last day of February starting this year

The Centre has revised its data calendar to declare the national account statistics in a bid to bring into order their release timings, The Economic Times reported.

According to the latest calendar, the ministry of statistics and programme implementation (MoSPI) will 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, starting this year. Previously, it was released on the last working day of January.

The move comes as an effort to align the release timing for key official data and avoid confusion before the Budget, which is presented on February 1, the report said, quoting officials. Earlier, the release date for this data was January 31, just two days before the Budget, and thus the data couldn't be incorporated into it.

The first advance estimates for the ongoing fiscal year were 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 per cent in FY 2023.

The MoSPI will release first revised estimates for FY22 along with the second revised estimates for 2020-21, the third revised estimates for 2019-20 and the third quarter estimates for FY23, on February 28.
The first revised estimate of national accounts data is important as it shows India's savings, which is a crucial indicator of the country's growth, the report said.

Quoting Aditi Nayar, the chief economist at ICRA, the report said the alignment of the first revised estimate with the second advance estimate would give an appropriate signal for growth between two years.

Previously, the Modi government also changed the Union Budget announcement date to February 1. Under the late Finance minister Arun Jaitley, the Modi government switched to February 1 from the colonial tradition of presenting the Budget on the last working day of February in 2017.