CSO proposes to replace GDP base year

The Central Statistics Office (CSO) proposes to replace the gross domestic product (GDP) series of 2011-12 base year with a new set of National Accounts using 2017-18 as the base-year. According to the chief statistician, this will be done as soon as the new consumer expenditure survey and the Annual Survey of Industries (ASI) results become available.  For the past four years there has been a raging controversy over the current GDP figures on account of questionable methodologies and databases used. According to official data, the annual economic growth rate has sharply decelerated to about 5% in the latest quarter, from over 8% a few years ago. Periodic rebasing of GDP series every seven to 10 years is carried out to account for the changing economic structure and relative prices. Gross Domestic Product or GDP represents the total value of all the final goods and services that are produced within a country’s borders within a particular time period, typically a year or a quarter.  It can be calculated by using three methods—the supply or production method, the income method and the demand or expenditure method and by definition the value of GDP should be identical, irrespective of the method used.