Govt shortens monthly factory output data release timeline to 28 days from 42

New Delhi: Starting April, the government will bring out the monthly industrial production data in 28 days, instead of the current practice of releasing it in 42 days, the Union statistics ministry said on Thursday. 

The reduced time for bringing out the widely-watched barometer for industrial activity is likely to benefit economists, policy makers and academicians, by leveraging new technology in data collection. 

Revamping dissemination of the index of industrial production (IIP) data is part of the overall reform to data governance, a priority for prime minister Narendra Modi. 

The statistics ministry said that its current practice is in line with global best practices and the norms of multilateral agencies like the United Nations and International Monetary Fund (IMF), but there has been a “growing demand from stakeholders for reducing the timeline of release of IIP,” the ministry said in a statement. 

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“From April 2025 onwards, All India Index of Industrial Production (IIP) will be released on 28th of every month at 4:00 PM within 28 days from the reference month. For a particular month IIP will be released as Quick Estimates followed by a Final Estimate,” said the ministry.

The government is also working on resetting the base year of the current series of the Wholesale Price Index (WPI) in an effort to make the measure of factory-gate inflation more accurate, Mint reported on 2 January. This is expected to make India’s estimation of economic output adjusted for inflation more precise. The plan is to change the base year of WPI from 2011-12 to 2022-23. Separately, work is also going on in making a transition from WPI, which tracks goods but not services to a more comprehensive producer price index (PPI) that can track services too.

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The statistics ministry currently releases the monthly IIP data on the twelfth day of every month, the previous working day if the twelfth is a holiday, within 42 days from the reference month.

The shift in the timeline was decided by a committee, set up by the ministry of statistics and programme implementation, consisting of representatives from data source agencies including the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), the Indian Bureau of Mines and the Department of Chemicals and Petrochemicals.

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Along with the shift in timeline, the committee also recommended the release of only two estimates, namely a quick estimate and a final estimate, of a particular month instead of the earlier practice of releasing three estimates--quick estimates followed by a first revised estimate and a second revised final estimate.

The ministry said the calendar of release of national accounts statistics has also been rationalized by obviating the need for the third revised estimates of the gross domestic product.  

Gireesh Chandra Prasad contributed to this story