Never raised doubts over new GDP numbers, clarifies Raghuram Rajan

New Delhi: A day after stating that "there are problems with the way we count GDP", RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan said on Friday he has never raised doubts over the GDP numbers and they are broadly correct.

"It was not anything about new GDP numbers or the way GDP is calculated. I think it's broadly correct," Rajan said while delivering the CD Deshmukh Memorial Lecture.

Observing that there are "no hidden messages" in his lectures, he said: "You do not have to gauge intent. I am direct when I speak".

These comments follow another lecture Rajan gave on Thursday in Mumbai before the students of the RBI-promoted Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research, wherein he had said, "There are problems with the way we count GDP which is why we need to be careful sometimes just talking about growth."

In his convocation address, citing the example of two mothers who babysit each other's kids, he said there is a rise in economic activity as each pays the other, but the net effect on the economy is questionable.

"We have to be a little careful about how we count GDP because sometimes we get growth because of people moving into different areas. It is important that when they move into newer areas, they are doing something which is adding value. We do lose some, we gain some and what is the net, let us be careful about how we count that," he said.

The academic-turned-central banker further said that there are many suggestions from various quarters on the ways to calculate GDP in a better way and we should take those seriously.

Some analysts have questioned the new GDP computation methodology, which has been in effect for a year. The critics point to the divergence in the mood between GDP data and other indicators like factory output to question the veracity of the new series.

Also, the new GDP methodology has seen for the first time the economy growing at lower in nominal terms than in real terms at the factor-cost effective 2005. In the second quarter of the current fiscal, the real GDP clipped at 7.4 per cent, while the nominal GDP grew much lower at 6 per cent.