



India updates merchandise trade indices base year to FY23; new series may alter real export growth readings
Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. The ministry of commerce and industry has overhauled its merchandise trade indices, shifting the base year to FY2022-23 from FY2012-13. The move aims to revamp the tracking of price and volume trends, providing a more accurate snapshot of an economy driven by high-tech manufacturing and engineering.
The Directorate General of Commercial Intelligence and Statistics, which compiles the indices, said the new series (2022–23 = 100) better reflects the current structure of India’s trade basket and global patterns. The revision comes after more than a decade, during which India’s export composition has shifted sharply towards electronics, engineering goods, chemicals, and higher value-added manufacturing, while global supply chains have undergone restructuring. The older FY13 base no longer adequately represented prevailing trade weights, leading to potential distortions in price and quantity measurement, a commerce ministry official said.
The overhaul follows recommendations from a committee chaired by Prof. Nachiketa Chattopadhyay of the Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata, which reviewed the methodology, coverage, and weighting patterns. Commodity baskets at the principal commodity level have been updated, and weights recalibrated using FY23 trade values.
Methodological refinements have also been introduced in selecting the common commodity basket and handling missing unit values, while continuing to use the Laspeyres formula with fixed monthly weights, the commerce ministry said in a statement on Friday. While the revision does not change actual export or import values, it can affect real growth estimates. The National Accounts Division under the ministry of statistics and programme
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