Govt defends revised GDP figures, says new methodology reflects improved data

The Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) on Wednesday defended the methodology behind its recently released economic growth estimates, saying the divergence between various price measures and revisions to last year’s GDP figures reflected updated data and estimation techniques rather than an attempt to artificially boost headline growth.

The explanation came two days after the government published a revised set of quarterly and annual GDP figures using 2022–23 as the base year. These estimates incorporated new administrative data, the Producer Price Index (PPI) and the Banking Services Price Index.

Concerns ranging from negative implicit price deflators in manufacturing to the stark contrast between nominal and real growth in mining, as well as the significant statistical disparity between production- and expenditure-side figures, were addressed by the ministry in a detailed set of questions and answers.