Baffled by sharp downward revision in industrial output numbers, finance minister Pranab Mukherjee has asked his officers to look into the statistical blunder and take corrective steps to prevent its recurrence. Industrial output, which grew at 4.1% in February was revised to 1.1% from 6.8% for January, due to discrepancy in data pertaining to consumer non-durable.

The revision came just days ahead of the Reserve Bank of India?s scheduled review of the monetary policy next Tuesday. Apart from inflation, industrial expansion is a key statistics for the central bank to decide its monetary policy. With IIP expansion losing steam, RBI is now expected to cut its lending rate for banks by 25 basis points, for the first time in 3 years.

Mukherjee reflected his frustration with the extreme volatility in the IIP data, something that the RBI has pointed out repeatedly. ?I can understand if there is an error in calculating 0.1% of 0.2%, but (revising the data) from 6.8% to 1.1%, it is totally baffling,? Mukherjee said at a Punjab National Bank function on Friday.