Economists have urged the ministry of statistics and programme implementation (MoSPI) to reduce the time lag in releasing key macroeconomic data such as GDP as this is crucial for investment, business and policy decisions.

MoSPI officials met forecasters and economists on September 24 to discuss ways to improve the robustness of macroeconomic data.

“Lag for GDP data release may be reduced. Release time of these indices may be changed to provide sufficient time for analysis by the users on the same day,” a ministry statement said.

The open house discussion led to several suggestions, including conducting frequent household consumption expenditure surveys to ensure frequent base revisions of the consumer price index and other macroeconomic indicators. The proposals include improving GDP estimation from different approaches, and exploring ways to better cover services in the revised series of CPI.

Participants also called for more frequent interactions to understand data collection methodologies for education, health services and the housing index.

Nilesh Shah, a member of the Economic Advisory Council to the PM, suggested that the MoSPI explore ways to improve data accuracy and reduce the release time lag.

Ajay Seth, secretary in the department of economic affairs, emphasised the need for timely and consistent data for informed decision-making. He advocated using technology for better data governance.