CSO to ask ministries for timely reporting of data for GDP estimates

The Central Statistical Organisation (CSO) is planning to reach out to key ministries for timely and quality reporting of data, which helps it in the formulation of GDP estimates, sources told CNBC-TV18.

The CSO has already written to the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare for timely data reporting and the same will be conveyed to others including the Ministry of Railways, Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises as well as RBI, said the sources, who did not want to be named.

The agency under the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation is also likely to request the data source ministries to follow a release calendar, added the sources.

The process of ministries gearing up for timely sharing of quality data could be time-consuming and the results may not be visible immediately. For instance, the agriculture ministry has to rely on states to source much of its data.

According to the sources, the CSO will not budge from its GDP release calendar but in the absence of timely and quality data reporting by source agencies, it will resort to extrapolation.

“There is a need to regularly involve stakeholders for improving coverage and quality of data for macroeconomic estimates,” said the sources, adding “data systems need to evolve and mature before incorporating in macroeconomic estimates."