India's GDP brawl could hurt Modi politically and prevent a rupee reset

Slapping a note on a published report saying figures aren't final and should "not be quoted anywhere" - after they've been quoted everywhere - only helped highlight the government's embarrassment

Just as some analysts were starting to believe in a reset for the Indian rupee, with the government becoming more relaxed about letting it weaken, history got in the way.

The history in question is past GDP data, which haven’t been officially released after India reworked its calculation methodology in early 2015. But the report of a subcommittee tasked to suggest ways to link the old and the new GDP series was recently made public. The panel’s calculations suggest growth averaged a tad above 8 per cent in the 10 years through fiscal 2014, compared with 7.4 per cent since then.