A Critical Assessment of the Index of Industrial Production Data in India

Abstract

This paper flags the basis weaknesses of the 1993-94 series of index of industrial production (IIP) data and calls for both base year revisions as also an overhaul of its contents so that it correctly captures the structural changes that have occurred in the economy. While highlighting some of the basic flaws in the compilation of IIP data, an attempt has also been made to gauge at the output growth pattern of the industrial sector emerging from the estimates of IIP and the annual survey of industry (ASI). Our analysis reveals divergences between the output growth trend of these two datasets