The government will miss its internal deadline for the release of the back series of GDP data, according to NITI Aayog, which on Monday said the data would be released by the end of December. The government had earlier indicated that the data would be released in November.

NITI Aayog said that during the consultation process on the issue, experts had asked for analytical data sets that were not readily available. Therefore, there will be another meeting soon once the data is ready.

“A roundtable discussion was held today under the Chairmanship of Vice Chairman, NITI Aayog, wherein the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) and several leading experts discussed the methodology for estimating back series of GDP,” Anna Roy, Advisor (Data Management & Analysis) at NITI Aayog, told reporters after the meeting.

Follow-up discussion

“During the ensuing discussion, experts sought several analytical information, which is being worked out,” Ms. Roy added. “It was, therefore, decided to have a follow-up roundtable discussion with experts shortly.”

She added that although the data release was expected on Monday, the additional requests made by the experts could not be ignored.

“But the data should be ready and released by the end of December,” Ms. Roy said.

The methodology for computing GDP data was revamped in 2015 and the base year was shifted to 2011. This, however, meant that the current data could not be compared to historical data. Efforts to provide back series data using the new methodology and base year have been going on since then.