The Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) has released a detailed technical document explaining how India calculates its national economic accounts. The new publication accompanies the shift to a fresh base year of 2022-23 for measuring the country’s economic output, replacing the previous system that had been in use since 2011-12.
This is the eighth time India has overhauled its method of tracking national accounts since formal statistics began. The new framework was first released in February 2026 and refined further in August 2026 to align with updated measures of industrial and producer prices.
What the document covers
The publication lays out the concepts, definitions, data sources and practices used to compile India’s National Accounts Statistics. It documents how economists and statisticians measure major economic indicators including Gross Domestic Product (GDP), National Income, consumption spending, investment and savings.
MoSPI formed an expert Advisory Committee on National Accounts Statistics in June 2024 to guide this revision. The committee held nine full meetings and organised more than 35 focused sub-committee sessions across four areas: new data sources, methodological improvements, constant price calculations, and regional accounts. Three national conferences in Mumbai, Delhi and Chennai brought together policymakers, academics and data users to review proposals.
Key methodological changes include:
- Better measurement of corporate sector output using company filings and business records
- Expanded coverage of the financial sector
- Revised calculations for government employee benefits and housing
- Direct use of MoSPI’s own household surveys for unincorporated business and labour statistics
- Updated consumer spending classifications aligned with United Nations standards
- New techniques for quarterly GDP estimation using GST and administrative data
What this means for you
If you work with economic data, analyse growth trends or rely on official statistics for research or policy decisions, this document provides the authoritative reference for understanding how India’s economic numbers are constructed. The publication explains which data sources feed into each calculation and what assumptions statisticians make, allowing users to interpret results with greater clarity and confidence in their accuracy.