CSO Data Shows That States Grow Faster Than All India GDP

States grow much faster than national growth rate

The data released by Central Statistics Office (CSO) does not reflect economic slowdown in the growth rates of the States.
In non-Special Category States 16 of 17 grew faster than the all-India gross domestic product (GDP) in 2012-13.
According to CSO data the growth rates for Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP) of States add up to 6.84% for 2012-13 & National GDP growth rate is 4.47 % with an unusually wide gap between them.
The States GDP adds up to about 90% of the national GDP. The difference is the output of the sectors that do not belong to any State such as the Bombay High.
The Finance Ministry, suspects that the high gap is because some States want to show higher growth rates than others due to the competition between States, especially in an election year and asked the CSO to validate the States data early.
Major source of over-estimation in the States’ data is on agricultural produce for which estimates are revised over several rounds through a year.
CSO concerns, at a technical level is whether the States were following the legal methodology for preparing the estimates and making projections or not.
State Directorates of Statistics prepares the GSDP data and then submits it to CSO to validate. After undergoing significant changes post-validation,then it is available after about two yrs.

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