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Growth, national accounts and their revision

How India measures what it produces: GDP, the national accounts, their revisions and the indices behind them.

Showing 2 of 4 articles, those that changed from 1 to 30 June 2026.Show all

The Producer Price Index and the new statistical series

Prelims and Mains

LeadNew numbers: the Producer Price Index and the new industrial indexJune 2026

Why in news

In June 2026 India released a new Index of Industrial Production and a new Wholesale Price Index, both on the base year 2022-23. With them came India's first Producer Price Indices, which will replace the wholesale index in about five years.

Background

An index measures change against a base year. The base year fixes the basket of goods and their weights.

India's main series had used bases more than a decade old: 2011-12 for GDP, industrial output and wholesale prices, and 2012 for consumer prices.

An old base misses new products and the changed shape of the economy.
Through 2026 every series moved: GDP to 2022-23, consumer prices to 2024, and now industrial output and wholesale prices to 2022-23.

Wholesale price and producer price compared

The Wholesale Price Index measures prices at the stage of the first bulk sale, and it covers only goods.
A Producer Price Index measures what the producer receives. It excludes taxes and transport, and it can cover services.

The wholesale index counts the same price rise more than once as a good passes down the chain; the producer index avoids this.
The producer index is the international standard.

What was launched

An Output index for goods, a trial Input index for manufacturing, and a Services index for seven services, among them banking, railways and telecom.
The wholesale index runs alongside for five years, so that contracts tied to it can switch. The industrial index moved to producer prices as its deflator in June, and the new GDP series uses them too.

The new industrial index is wider: it adds water supply, sewerage and waste management as a fourth section.

Why it matters

Real growth: output in rupees is turned into real output by dividing by a price index. A better price index gives a truer growth figure.
Policy: the Reserve Bank and the Budget lean on these numbers.
Trust: India's national accounts had drawn a poor grade from the International Monetary Fund for their dated methods.
The risk: a jump in growth or inflation that comes only from a change of base weakens confidence, unless the old and new series are linked in the open.

The way forward

Publish the back series and the linking method with each new series.
Fix a calendar for revising base years, every five years.
Move contracts and policy from the wholesale index to the producer index in step.

Prelims facts

Base years now: GDP, industrial output and wholesale prices 2022-23; consumer prices 2024.
The industrial index and consumer prices are released by the statistics ministry; wholesale and producer prices by the Office of the Economic Adviser in the commerce ministry.
The Reserve Bank's inflation target is on consumer prices, not wholesale prices.
The Index of Core Industries now has nine industries, with iron ore added.
A Producer Price Index can cover services; the wholesale index does not.

Open the lead on its own page

An index measures change against a base year. The base year fixes the basket of goods and their weights.

What changed

15 Jun 2026LeadNew numbers: the Producer Price Index and the new industrial index

Industrial output and the core industries

Prelims

The Index of Industrial Production (IIP) measures the monthly output of mining, manufacturing and electricity, and the Index of Core Industries (ICI) measures the basic industries that feed it.

The National Statistics Office releases the IIP about four weeks after the month, on a 2022-23 base since the April 2026 data.
The ICI is compiled by the Office of the Economic Adviser in the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade and released on the 20th of the following month.
Since July 2026 the ICI covers nine industries: coal, crude oil, natural gas, refinery products, fertilisers, steel, cement, electricity and, the ninth, iron ore.
The IIP's quick estimate rests on incomplete returns, so it is revised in later months.

What changed

29 Jun 2026Briefnewly addedThe IIP grew 5.1 per cent in May 2026, a five month high. The Hindu, 29 Jun 2026: IIP growth quickens to five-month high of 5.1% on cross-sector improvements (opens in a new tab)

Show history (3 other updates)

28 Sep 2026Briefnewly addedThe IIP grew 8 per cent in August 2026, led by manufacturing, while mining shrank in the monsoon. The Hindu, 28 Sep 2026: Industrial growth quickens to 8% in August (opens in a new tab)
28 Aug 2026Briefnewly addedThe IIP grew 6.7 per cent in July 2026. June's growth was revised up to 8.8 per cent from the provisional 7.3 per cent. The Hindu, 28 Aug 2026: IIP growth slows to 6.7% in July 2026, economists warn of sluggish rural consumption (opens in a new tab) · Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, 28 Aug 2026: IIP press release for July 2026 (opens in a new tab)
28 Jul 2026Briefnewly addedThe IIP grew 7.3 per cent in June 2026, a provisional figure. The first ICI release on the 2022-23 base added iron ore as the ninth industry, and the nine grew 5.0 per cent in June. Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, 28 Jul 2026 · PIB, 20 Jul 2026: First release of the Index of Core Industries new series (opens in a new tab)

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