Government Revises Release Date of Provisional GDP Estimates to 7 June Every Year

The Government of India has revised the release schedule for the publication of:

• Provisional Estimates (PE) of annual Gross Domestic Product (GDP), and
• Quarterly GDP estimates for the fourth quarter (January–March).

Under the revised system, the data will now be released on 7 June every year, instead of the earlier practice of publication on the last working day of May. The decision was announced by the National Statistics Office functioning under the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation.

The revised timeline will come into effect from the Provisional Estimates of GDP for FY 2025–26, and the GDP estimates for the January–March 2026 quarter.

Since 7 June 2026 falls on a holiday weekend, the data will instead be released on 5 June 2026. The ministry clarified that in future GDP data will ordinarily be released on 7 June, or on the previous working day if 7 June happens to be a holiday.

Reason Behind the Revision: According to the ministry, the revised schedule aims to:

• strengthen data quality,
• improve robustness of national accounts statistics,
• enhance coverage and reliability of estimates.

The revision was undertaken after consultation with the Advisory Committee on National Accounts Statistics. The government stated that the move is part of its continuing efforts to improve the quality and accuracy of macroeconomic statistics used in national accounts compilation.

Significance of the Move: The additional time before publication is expected to:

• allow incorporation of more complete datasets,
• reduce revisions arising from incomplete information,
• improve accuracy of GDP estimation,
• strengthen credibility of official economic statistics.

Source: AIR & ET