 "Indian economy, Economy")
A base year is the reference year whose prices are used to calculate the real growth (minus inflation) in national income. (Photo: Shutterstock)
The updated new base year for national accounts and other macro-indicators is expected to come into effect from January-February 2026, coinciding with the first and second advance estimates of national income for FY26, senior official sources aware of the development told Business Standard.
“The statistics ministry set up the Advisory Committee on National Accounts Statistics (ACNAS) earlier this week. It will advise on the base year for gross domestic product (GDP) and its alignment with other macro-indicators. Starting January-February 2026, the new base year for national accounts will come into effect. Similarly, the updated base year for other macro-indicators will also come into effect, so that comparability isn’t affected,” said sources.
The development comes at a time when the government is planning to update the base year for major macro-indicators such as GDP, wholesale price index (WPI) used for wholesale inflation, consumer price index (CPI) used to determine consumer inflation, and index of industrial production (IIP) used for calculation of industrial growth.
While the decision to choose a base year for GDP will be taken by ACNAS, the sources also indicated that 2024 is expected to be the new base year for CPI as the ministry of statistics and programme implementation (MoSPI) is currently undertaking a year-long market survey to identify changes in the prices of items over time and measure items that are consumed most frequently.
“A total of 13 surveys are needed to undertake the base year revision for national accounts. We already have the eight important surveys like the household expenditure survey, survey on unincorporated enterprises, and survey on industries. The rest are also being done and will be completed by the end of this year. The market survey for CPI is also ongoing for the current calendar year, thus indicating that 2024 will be the new base year for CPI,” the sources said.
Earlier, the Central Statistical Office (CSO) in January 2015 had announced 2011-12 as the base year for India’s national accounts, replacing the previous base year of 2004-05. This was in line with the recommendations of the National Statistical Commission (NSC), which advocated base year changes every five years.
A base year is the reference year whose prices are used to calculate the real growth (minus inflation) in national income.
First Published: Jul 01 2024 | 10:10 AM IST
