2017-18 to be base year for GDP calculation

The government will change the base year to 2017-18 for the calculation of GDP and IIP numbers while for retail inflation the year will be revised to 2018, Union minister D V Sadananda Gowda said on Thursday. 

"During 2018-19, the ministry is proposing to initiate steps to revise the base years of gross domestic product (GDP), Index of Industrial Production (IIP) and Consumer Price Index (CPI) to accommodate and factor the changes that take place in the economic scenario of the country," the statistics and programme implementation minister said at a conference on budget provisions. 

The statistics ministry has proposed the new base year for GDP and IIP as 2017-18 while for CPI it will be 2018. 

Gowda said the ministry will undertake various steps in the next fiscal beginning April that will improve the statistical system that will help meet the data requirements in the emerging socio-economic scenario. 

The ministry of statistics and programme implementation has been allocated Rs 4,859 crore in the Union  Budget 2018-19.