The Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation released the National Accounts Statistics 2026 publication on 31 August 2026 with financial year 2022-23 as the new base year for measuring national income. The new series replaces the earlier 2011-12 base and updates estimates of Gross Domestic Product, national income and related aggregates. It also brings in fresh price and production indicators to reflect how the Indian economy looks today.
What Is National Accounts Statistics?
National Accounts Statistics (NAS) is the official framework India uses to measure the size and health of the economy. It presents yearly and quarterly estimates of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), Gross Value Added (GVA), national income, consumption, saving, capital formation and related aggregates. In simple terms, national income is the total value of final goods and services produced by the residents of a country in a year.
The publication is prepared by the National Accounts Division (NAD) under the National Statistical Office (NSO). The NSO works within the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI), which came into existence as an independent ministry on 15 October 1999 after the merger of the Department of Statistics and the Department of Programme Implementation. The Ministry is the nodal agency for building the statistical system of the country and for coordinating data work across central ministries, state governments and international agencies.
India prepares its national accounts in line with the System of National Accounts 2008 (SNA 2008), which is the global standard approved by the United Nations Statistical Commission. The work is guided by the Advisory Committee on National Accounts Statistics (ACNAS), a group of technical experts and representatives of central ministries and state Directorates of Economics and Statistics. On its advice, new data sources and better methods are added during each base year revision.
Why FY23 Was Chosen as the New Base Year
A base year is the reference year whose prices are used to calculate real growth. When GDP is measured at current prices, it is called nominal GDP and it includes the effect of rising prices. When it is measured at base year prices, it is called real GDP and it shows only the change in the actual volume of goods and services. The base year therefore acts like a fixed ruler against which growth in later years is compared.
The previous base year was 2011-12, which was released in January 2015. Over time that ruler had become outdated because consumption habits, industry structure and technology had changed a lot. Annual revisions only update data without changing methods, while a base year revision changes the reference year and also brings in new methods, new classifications and new data sources to capture structural changes.
The government selected 2022-23 because it was the most recent normal year after the COVID-19 disruption. The years 2019-20 to 2021-22 had seen sharp swings in consumption, production and trade, so they could not serve as a fair benchmark. By 2022-23, activity had stabilised and detailed and robust data were available from surveys and administrative records, including the Household Consumption Expenditure Survey (HCES) 2022-23, the Annual Survey of Industries (ASI), company filings with the Ministry of Corporate Affairs and budgets of central and state governments.
What the NAS 2026 Publication Contains
The NAS 2026 publication presents a set of 60 statements based on updated Final Estimates for 2022-23 and 2023-24 and the First Revised Estimate for 2024-25. It also carries four statements on the Provisional Estimate of GDP for 2025-26 and quarterly GDP estimates from 2022-23 to 2025-26. Some sequence of accounts statements that depend on flow of funds data from the Reserve Bank, which comes with a lag of about two years, will be released later.
The 60 statements are grouped into broad families that together give a full picture of income, production and spending in the economy.
| Category of estimates | What it covers |
|---|---|
| Macroeconomic aggregates | GDP, national income, per capita income, price and volume indices |
| Production and value added | Sector output, intermediate use and GVA by economic activity |
| Consumption and spending | Private Final Consumption Expenditure (PFCE) and Government Final Consumption Expenditure (GFCE) |
| Saving and capital formation | Saving by households, private companies and government, and investment by industry, asset and institution |
| Public sector and external sector | Transactions of government enterprises and accounts on trade and flows with the rest of the world |
In the new 2022-23 series, GDP for the base year 2022-23 is estimated at ₹261.18 lakh crore. Real GDP stood at ₹280.01 lakh crore in 2023-24 and ₹299.89 lakh crore in 2024-25, showing growth of 7.2% and 7.1% respectively. Net National Income at current prices rose to ₹271.44 lakh crore in 2024-25 from ₹246.25 lakh crore in 2023-24. Per capita Net National Income at current prices was estimated at ₹1,59,557 in 2022-23, ₹1,76,465 in 2023-24 and ₹1,92,774 in 2024-25.
Three Updated Indicators Behind the Revision
The revised estimates use three new indicator series with the same 2022-23 base, released in June 2026, along with updated administrative data. Their wider coverage and better price mapping have led to changes in the level and growth of GDP at both current and constant prices.
Output Producer Price Index
The Producer Price Index (PPI) measures the change in prices that producers receive for their output. It is different from the Wholesale Price Index (WPI), which tracks bulk goods at the wholesaler stage, and the Consumer Price Index (CPI), which tracks prices paid by households at the shop. The output PPI is compiled on the basis of basic price, which leaves out net taxes and trade and transport margins, so it reflects the factory gate more closely.
The new series is prepared by the Office of the Economic Adviser in the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade under the Ministry of Commerce and Industry. The Output PPI and the trial Input PPI take their weights from the Supply Table and Use Table of the national accounts for 2022-23. The total number of items in WPI rose from 697 to 957, and weights are now based on Gross Value of Output. The office also started quarterly Service Producer Price Indices for seven services, namely banking, securities transaction, insurance, management of pension funds, railways, air passenger and telecom.
Index of Industrial Production
The Index of Industrial Production (IIP) is a monthly indicator of short term change in factory and mine output. It is compiled and published by the Economic Statistics Division of the NSO and the quick estimate is generally released on the 28th of the following month. It covers mining, manufacturing, electricity and gas supply, and water supply and waste management.
The new IIP series with base 2022-23 was released on 1 June 2026. It has wider coverage of industries, products and production units and updated weights. A major change is the use of Output PPI as the deflator in place of WPI for item groups where output is collected in value terms. This affects 234 out of 463 item groups, which carry about 36.02% of the total index weight. The entire series was revised again after the Output PPI became available on 15 June 2026, and the PPI based series now replaces the earlier WPI based series.
Banking Services Price Index
The Banking Services Price Index (BkSPI) with base 2022-23 helps measure banking output in real terms. Banking is hard to measure because its service charge is often hidden inside the gap between interest on loans and interest on deposits. BkSPI allows statisticians to separate price change from actual growth in physical volume and transactions such as loans, deposits and fee based activity. It uses bank level data on loans, deposits and interest along with information on non banking financial companies and insurance firms. This improves the estimate of financial services, which form a large part of the services sector in GVA.
How GDP Is Calculated and Why the Base Year Matters
Gross Domestic Product is the total value of final goods and services produced within the country in a year. Gross Value Added is the value of output minus the value of inputs used in production. GDP is broadly equal to GVA plus taxes on products minus subsidies on products. Gross National Income adds net income earned from abroad to GDP, while Net National Income, often called national income, is obtained after subtracting depreciation of fixed assets.
Growth can be studied in two ways. Nominal growth uses current year prices and mixes real expansion with inflation. Real growth uses base year prices and shows only the rise in quantity. To move from nominal to real values, statisticians divide by a price index, a process called deflation. The implicit GDP deflator, which is the ratio of GDP at current prices to GDP at constant prices, then shows price change for the whole economy, including government spending, investment, exports and services such as banking and IT.
The choice of deflator matters a lot. CPI covers only household consumption at the retail end. WPI covers bulk commodities and manufactured goods at the wholesaler level and leaves out services. PPI covers output at the producer level and maps more cleanly to the activities recorded in national accounts.
| Indicator | What it tracks | Who compiles it |
|---|---|---|
| CPI | Prices paid by households for goods and services at the retail stage | NSO, MoSPI, with base year 2024 for the latest series |
| WPI | Prices of bulk goods and manufactured products at the wholesale stage, without services | Office of Economic Adviser, DPIIT, base year now 2022-23 |
| Output PPI | Prices received by producers at basic prices, used as a deflator for national accounts and IIP | Office of Economic Adviser, DPIIT, base year 2022-23 |
Because manufacturing and trade services in NAS 2026 are now deflated with the expanded PPI instead of WPI, their constant price estimates have been revised. This is one reason the level and growth of GDP in the new series differ from the old 2011-12 series.
Significance of the New Series
The new series gives policymakers, researchers and businesses a clearer and more current map of the economy. It uses high frequency indicators, better company data and updated Supply and Use Tables, which record how goods and services flow between industries. The corporate and unincorporated sectors are measured more fully through administrative records and surveys such as HCES, ASI and the Periodic Labour Force Survey. Revised Supply and Use Tables with a methodological note have been placed on the MoSPI website along with the detailed Source and Methods document expected in 2026.
The change also aligns India with global practice. Base years are revised every few years across countries to keep national accounts relevant and comparable, as recommended under SNA 2008. India plans to move toward SNA 2025, which is expected to be adopted globally around 2029-30, in its next revision. For continuity, the revised method will be carried back and linked at a detailed level to extend the series to 1950-51.
The broader statistical modernisation is happening together. The base year for GDP and IIP is now 2022-23, the base year for CPI has been moved to 2024 to update the consumption basket for rural and urban households, and the revision of WPI to 2022-23 is complete with a plan to shift users gradually from WPI to PPI over five years. States and union territories will also revise their Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP) estimates using the new methods communicated by the NSO.
Key Takeaways
- The National Accounts Statistics 2026 was released on 31 August 2026 with 2022-23 as the new base year replacing 2011-12.
- The publication contains 60 statements based on Final Estimates for FY23 and FY24 and the First Revised Estimate for FY25.
- GDP for base year 2022-23 is estimated at ₹261.18 lakh crore, with real growth of 7.2% in 2023-24 and 7.1% in 2024-25.
- The revision uses new Output PPI, IIP and Banking Services Price Index series with base 2022-23 released in June 2026.
- The Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, formed on 15 October 1999, prepares national accounts through the NSO in line with SNA 2008.
