DECODING THE GROWTH STORY

The Advance Estimates of growth in gross domestic product for the current financial year, which will be released on Friday, may give the correct picture of the economy if the strike rate of the correctness of these data with the first provisional data for the past two years is sustained. The estimates were also on the dot in 2013-14 when growth had slid to five per cent due to the so-called policy logjam. For the rest of the years, the deviation was a couple of percentage points here and there, barring the global financial crisis year of 2008-09 and 2011-12 when the eurozone crisis hit the world economy. Advance Estimates are used for computing Budget numbers such as fiscal deficit.