As many as 76% of 189 chief executives and chief financial officers (CFOs) say they find the new data showing over 7% growth for the fiscal “too good to be realistic” as the underlying situation is not that upbeat, says a survey conducted by industry body Assocham.
The survey cautions the government against relying too much on the new series data on gross domestic product (GDP), especially the sharp upward revision of growth to 6.9% for 2013-14 from 4.7%. Last month, the Central Statistics Office (CSO) projected GDP growth for FY16 at 7.4%, making India the fastest-growing large economy in the world.
In the new series, which changed the base year for calculation of national income to 2011-12 from 2004-05, the share of manufacturing in overall gross value added went up to 17.3% last fiscal from the 12.9% estimated earlier, making the sector seem much better than assumed.
“As many as 71% of the CEOs surveyed said they would like to wait for some more time before they could be as optimistic as the government is about the new data, while 68% the CFOs said the picture must look getting translated into solid sales and production data on the ground… there is some way to cover,” the study said.