Demonetisation cannot be assessed by single-quarter data: TCA Anant

Interview with Central Statistics Office, Chief Statistician TCA Anant

As critics doubt the gross domestic product (GDP) figures brought out by the Central Statistics Office (CSO), Chief Statistician TCA Anant, a former Business Standard columnist, tells Indivjal Dhasmana that demonetisation-like events take time to work through the economy. The CSO, he says, has given the figures based on methodologies and it is crucial to understand those rather than speculating. Edited excerpts:

Both the first advance estimates, which did not factor in the impact of demonetisation, and the second advance estimates, which accounted for the effect of the note ban, gave the same gross domestic product growth numbers at 7.1 per