Reserve Bank of India governor Sanjay Malhotra has termed the ongoing exercise to revise the base year of key macroeconomic indicators as “timely”, saying it would enable more calibrated policy-making by reflecting structural changes in the Indian economy more accurately.
“This exercise is not merely a revision in the base year, but it also covers revision in methods, weights, item baskets, data sources and competition techniques. Indicators such as CPI, GDP and IIP play a vital role in policy making in the RBI. CPI is especially important for monetary policy purposes because it anchors our flexible inflation targeting framework.
“Updating the base year of CPI will ensure that the index reflects the consumption patterns and household spending more accurately as they have obviously changed over a period of time,” Malhotra said.
Emphasising the need for national accounts to keep pace with economic transformation, the governor said, “GDP needs to capture the evolving structure of the Indian economy, which has transformed and changed with the rising role of services, digital activities and various new business models. IIP base revision will also help us in improving our assessments of the underlying momentum in the real economy.”
The comments come amid the government’s ongoing work to update base years for major economic indicators. The new GDP series with base year 2022-23 will be released on February 12. The new CPI series with base year 2024 will be released on February 12, and the new IIP series with base year 2022-23 will be released on May 28.
RBI’s next monetary policy is scheduled on February 4-6, 2026, and the policies thereafter could factor in the numbers with the updated base year.
An outdated base year has been one of the key considerations for the International Monetary Fund to give a grade ‘C’ to India’s national accounts last year, indicating significant methodological weakness that hinders effective economic surveillance.
The central bank on Friday issued the revised Reserve Bank — Integrated Ombudsman Scheme, 2026, aimed at further improving the efficiency of the resolution of complaints filed by aggrieved customers of banks and other regulated entities.