Data credibility at stake

Unfortunate fiasco over consumer spend survey

The credibility of the Indian statistical system has come under scrutiny yet again, after the government on Friday decided to scrap the consumer expenditure survey, conducted by the National Statistical Office (NSO) during 2017-18, because of “data quality issues”. The decision came after the findings of the withheld report were published in this newspaper. According to the survey, compared with 2011-12, monthly per capita consumer expenditure fell by 3.7 per cent in 2017-18 — the first decline in at least four decades. While spending in urban areas went up by just 2 per cent, it registered a massive 8.8 per