SBI rejects 2.6% nominal GDP claim, says comparison uses outdated data

Former finance secretary Subhash Chandra Garg challenged the government's 7.8% real GDP growth reading for Q1 FY27, claiming that a revision of last year’s current-price GDP would reduce nominal growth to around 2.6%. SBI responded that the 2.6% figure stems from an invalid comparison of the new Rs 88.3 lakh crore estimate with the pre-revision Rs 86.1 lakh crore FY26 value. Using the revised FY26 figure of roughly Rs 80 lakh crore, nominal growth is about 9.7%, close to the officially reported 10.3%.

Even with the lower nominal rate, an adjusted deflator shows real growth of about 7.4%, still robust against the official 7.8%. The bank highlighted that GDP estimates are routinely revised and that the Q1 FY27 number will not be final until February 2029. It also noted that the recent base-year change actually lowered the nominal GDP size rather than increasing it.