The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has raised questions over some part of the methodology to calculate gross domestic product (GDP) numbers in India. It said large revisions to historical series, the relatively short time span of the revised series, and major discrepancies between GDP by activity and GDP by expenditure complicate analysis.

IMF said the compilation of constant price GDP deviate from the conceptual requirements of the national accounts.

There was a major controversy over the back series data on the base year of 2011-12. A committee set up by the National Statistical Commission (NSC) came out with its recommendations on the back series, which showed double-digit growth in some years of the UPA government. The recommendations were junked by the government after those were put on the public domain.

Later, the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) came out with its own back series data on the base year of 2011-12. It varied hugely from the numbers given by the NSC panel, inviting criticism from many quarters.