During the RBI’s Monetary Policy Committee announcements on Friday, Governor Sanjay Malhotra stated that the new series of GDP and inflation will be out in two days. “You are all aware that in a few days we will have a new series on both GDP and inflation,” Malhotra announced.

“Going forward, the MPC will be guided by developments in macroeconomic conditions and the outlook based on the new series data to chart the future course of monetary policy,” the governor said.

While announcing the upward revisions for the first quarter and second quarter of 2026-27 to 6.9% and 7%, Governor Malhotra said, “We are deferring the full-year projections to the April policy as the new GDP series will be released at the end of the month.”

WHY WE NEED NEW SERIES OF GDP, INFLATION

Last month, the Press Information Bureau stated that India’s statistical system is undergoing a comprehensive modernization to better capture the realities of a rapidly evolving economy. The decade-long baseline has been 2011-12, but in the meantime, the nation saw “significant structural changes” with the services sector expanding rapidly, with the implementation of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) and digital platforms transforming business models.

“These changes led to a demand for more timely indicators, more detailed geographic detail and improved coverage of the informal and service sectors. In response, the Government has initiated coordinated reforms as part of a broader modernization of the national statistical system with the aim of strengthening data quality, credibility and policy relevance,” he said, adding that this would include revising the core GDP and price indices, among other things.

He explained that the year 2022-23 was chosen as the new base because it is the most recent ‘normal’ year after the disruptions of 2019-21″. The years 2019-20 and 2020-21 were significantly affected by the disruptions of COVID, which had completely disrupted consumption patterns and industrial production.

CHRONOLOGY OF THE NEW GDP, INFLATION SERIES

The new GDP series with the base year 2022-23 will be released on February 27
The new series of CPI with base year 2024 will be released on February 12
New series of IIP with base year 2022-23 will be published on May 28