IMF Chief Economist Gita Gopinath has raised concerns over the way India calculates its growth rate. In a recent interview to CNBC, she said: "There are still some issues with the way India calculates its growth rate and the IMF is paying close attention to the new numbers that are coming out."
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Gita Gopinath flagged concerns over the use of "deflator" in the process of estimating GDP. She said, "GDP deflator is a measure of inflation which captures the rise in GDP due to higher prices rather than an increase in output."
The chief economist also called on the country to be transparent about its statistics.
"India is projected to be growing over 7 percent both in 2019 and 2020 which makes it one of the fastest growing large economies of the world, which is why it is even more important that the statistics coming out of India are transparently communicated because everybody is watching India at this point," said Gopinath.
The former RBI governor Raghuram Rajan has raised the issue in the recent past.
He had said, "How can we be growing at 7 per cent and not have jobs. Well, one possibility is that we are not growing at 7 per cent." "Given the discrepancy between government claims on these, and those of quasi-government and private bodies, it is better to turn to other evidence," said Raghuram Rajan.
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