The ministry of statistics and programme implementation (MoSPI) has advanced the release time of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) estimates to 4PM, from 5:30 PM earlier. This has been to provide the public more time to analyse the national accounts data, an official release said.
Recently, MoSPI advanced the release timings of the Consumer Price Index (CPI) and Index of Industrial Production (IIP) data as well. Both the data sets will now be released at 4PM on the 12th day of every month, from its previous time of 5:30.
Economists see the advancing of data release time as part of many measures being taken to improve data frequency and transparency. Frequent sharp revisions of macro-economic data and certain incompatibilities being highlighted within data-sets and among different sets of data have come under criticism by some quarters.
In a release issued on Friday, MoSPI said: “With a perspective to provide the users/media/public more time on the day of release to access GDP data, the ministry has decided to revise the release time for the press releases of GDP estimates.”
NR Bhanumurthy, director, Madras School of Economics said that even though Indian markets will close, but foreign markets will remain open. “There are many foreign investors, and advancing data release will give slightly early signals to those investors.”
To be sure, the London Stock Exchange opens at 1:30PM IST and closes at 10PM, and the New York Stock Exchange opens at 7PM and closes at 1:30AM. The Euronext opens at 12:30 PM and 9PM, respectively, while the Hong Kong Stock Exchange opens at 6:45 AM and closes at 1:30PM.
In the release, MoSPI said that the new release time aligns with the closing hours of major financial markets in India, “ensuring that GDP data dissemination does not interfere with active trading.” This adjustment also adheres to MoSPI’s commitment to transparency and accessibility in data dissemination, it added.
In September, many economists had suggested the statistics ministry to advance the release of the GDP data. They were of the view that early release would give more time for analysis by the users on the same day.
The National Statistical Office (NSO), under MoSPI. releases annual and quarterly estimates of GDP in accordance with the pre-specified releases/publication schedule laid down in advance release calendar of various macroeconomic indicators.
The next press release of GDP estimates for the second quarter (July – September) of FY25 will thus be available on November 29, 2024, at 4:00 PM.
Additionally, economists had suggested the ministry to reduce the frequency of revision in data sets, and improve its robustness. Economists had said that technology should be used to enhance quality, reduce time lag, and improve data dissemination.
Currently, three technical committees formed by MoSPI are looking at changing the base years of IIP, CPI and GDP data sets. These suggestions are also being examined and appropriate recommendations are being made to the ministry, sources say.
The government may change the CPI base year to 2024 from 2012 at present, and that of IIP and GDP to 2022-23 from 2011-12.