India’s GDP better than others, says fake news

While the media is not talking about India’s GDP crashing to an all-time low, the social media is buzzing with false stories about how India is better positioned. The posts which are doing rounds on various social media platforms suggest that the US, Canadian and the Japanese economies have contracted more than Indian. These posts are comparing these economies’ annualised contraction to India’s recently released yearon-year contraction. It claims that the GDP cut of the US, Canada and Japan is -32.9%, -38.7% and -27.8% respectively whereas India is -23%.

Fact: The sole aim of these comparisons was to show the Indian economy is in the better place in times of pandemic as compared to other economies. The comparison is misleading, as these countries report annualised numbers, which are quarterly figures compounded to show how much the economy would grow if the same growth rate applied for the full year. India reports its quarterly figures year-on-year: how the quarter ending June 2020 compares to the same quarter in 2019. India’s economy declined by 23.9% for the quarter ending June this year whereas the fall to the US, Canada and Japan are annualised declines.

This fall is India’s worst economic decline ever. India joins a number of countries that witnessed an economic contraction due to the COVID-19 restrictions. A graphic by a popular publication also went viral, which compared quarterly drops to a yearly drop in India. However, the users of social media later morphed the image of the US' annualised figure with India's quarterly figure. Various images and posts have been circulating on social media with these claims.

Conclusion: The posts which are being shared are false and misleading. (Source: Boom live)