India's June-Quarter GDP Data Faces Scrutiny Over Revision Debate

India reported 7.8% economic growth in the April-June quarter, but the figure is being questioned. According to Sina Finance, a former government official said the GDP data may have been inflated, while the government defended the reliability of the numbers and said the revisions were due to a new statistical framework. Subhash Chandra Garg, who served as India's finance secretary from 2017 to 2019, said revised data lowered nominal GDP for the first quarter of fiscal 2025-2026 by 6 trillion rupees to 80 trillion rupees. He argued that after the base was lowered, the quarter's GDP of 88.27 trillion rupees looked stronger on a year-on-year basis. India's Chief Economic Adviser V. Anantha Nageswaran rejected that interpretation in an interview with local media on Thursday. He said the latest GDP statistics use fiscal 2022-2023 as the new base year, and that the methodology change led to revisions in last year's quarterly data. Nageswaran said some quarterly figures were revised higher and others lower, and that the full data series should be viewed for consistency. India's Ministry of Finance did not respond to a request for comment and only forwarded reports of Nageswaran's interview with local media. The Congress party also backed Garg on the same day, saying India's GDP had been revised down by 430 trillion rupees over the past four years. India's Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal said the 7.8% growth rate was credible. The IMF raised concerns about the accuracy of India's economic data in a report last year and gave it a C grade, the second-lowest rating in its system. India introduced a new statistical framework in February to address issues including an outdated base year, the use of a wholesale price index, and a single deflator method for inflation calculations.