Problematic revisions: We need fewer, quicker economic growth estimates

The CSO releases as many as 6 estimates of India's annual economic output growth; believe it or not, these estimates for the same year's economic output are released over a period of three years!

When the Central Statistics Office (CSO) declared India’s gross domestic product (GDP) growth figure for 2016-17 on January 6, 2017, economic policy makers in the Narendra Modi government were disappointed. The GDP growth figure was only 7.1 per cent, less than what the government had hoped for and lower than what it was in 2015-16. Critics had noted that the figure was an early signal of the feared consequences of demonetisation. Demonetisation had nullified 86 per cent of the Indian currency notes in circulation and had replaced them with new currency notes over the next few months causing huge disruptions