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India needs more data transparency
Few used to question the reliability of the country’s GDP growth numbers. That’s beginning to change.
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Statisticians have a much harder task in India than in the West or even in China.
PHOTO: AFP
Mihir Sharma
India’s institutional strength used to be reflected in the reliability of its national accounts. Unlike in China, few questioned the government’s figures for growth in gross domestic product (GDP), and investors rarely needed to supplement official numbers with other data sources.
That has, quietly, changed. While few believe Indian statisticians are actively working to make growth numbers look better than they are, less and less data is publicly available, methods are less transparent, and the GDP figures in particular sometimes diverge puzzlingly from independent data.
