Arvind Subramanian, former chief economic advisor
Former chief economic adviser Arvind Subramanian on Friday said India’s latest GDP numbers are ‘absolutely mystifying’ and difficult to comprehend.
“I want to be honest with you that the latest GDP numbers, I just simply can not understand them.
“I say that with genuine respect and things. They are absolutely mystifying. They don’t add up. I don’t know what they mean,” Subramanian said while speaking at the India Today conclave.
The NSO has also revised GDP estimates for the first and second quarters of this fiscal to 8.2 per cent and 8.1 per cent from 7.8 per cent and 7.6 per cent, respectively.
Elaborating further, Subramanian said while the implied inflation in these numbers is 1 to 1.5 per cent, actual inflation in the economy is somewhere between 3 and 5 per cent.
“The economy is growing at seven and a half per cent, even though private consumption is at 3 per cent,” he pointed out.
And in the latest data, Subramanian said errors and omissions, which are not accounted for, are actually about 4.3 percentage points out of the estimated 7.6 per cent growth for FY24.
“So it’s a lot of stuff about the numbers which you know, I don’t understand. I am not saying these are wrong. That’s for others to judge,” the former CEA said.
“… you can see foreign direct investment actually collapsed quite a bit,” he said.
The former CEA wondered if India has become such an attractive place, why is not there more foreign direct investment.
” Private investment, corporate investment is well below levels in 2016,” Subramanian pointed out.
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First Published: Mar 15 2024 | 4:00 PM IST
