Congress calls latest GDP data ‘statistical gymnastics’, accuses Modi government of manipulating growth figures

The Indian National Congress on Tuesday criticised the Union Government's recent quarterly data release as "statistical gymnastics" and accused the government of fixing GDP data by repeatedly changing the methodology. Congress General Secretary Jairam Ramesh claimed that if the Modi government gives honest numbers, the real growth number will be much lower, which the Government’s own former Chief Economic Advisor have admitted previously.

In a post on the social media platform X, Congress General Secretary Jairam Ramesh said,“Yesterday’s GDP numbers are simply statistical gymnastics. By changing the methodology repeatedly, the Modi government is fixing GDP data while hiding India’s bleak economic reality.”

This comes after the Union Government announced that the country is showing a growth rate of 7.8% for the April-June quarter, which Prime Minister Narendra Modi hailed as “exemplary” and took a dig at the leader of the opposition, Rahul Gandhi: “Doomsayers were doomed and India bloomed...yet again!”

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Jairam Ramesh pointed out that the difference between the nominal GDP and the real GDP is supposed to represent inflation, which, according to the government, is 2.3 per cent. The government uses a custom "implicit GDP deflator" that suppresses GDP on paper to 2 per cent, even though headline CPI inflation is above 4 per cent and WPI inflation is above 9 per cent. When the government downplays inflation in GDP calculation, the nation's real, volume-based growth appears much faster and healthier than it actually is. Using a deflator has been common practice, but the massive gap raises questions. In these quarterly GDP figures with the new 2022-23 base-year series, the government started to include the double deflation method.

“This discrepancy has been manufactured by the Modi Government, which has changed the methodology for calculating the GDP twice this year. In June, just in time for this latest round of GDP estimates, it moved away from the WPI for its calculation,” said Jairam Ramesh. He further added that the Modi government's Make in India has achieved very little, but “the fake in India” continues “unabated”.