Falling rural demand seems to have finally done it. Consumer spending in India declined for the first time in more than four decades in 2017-18. But the Centre has decided to not release the survey, after which the Modi government was slammed on social media.
A media report cited the latest consumption expenditure survey by the National Statistical Office (NSO) to claim that consumer spending fell for the first time in more than four decades in 2017-18, primarily driven by slackening rural demand.
After the report went viral on social media, Centre decided to junks consumer survey due to data quality issues. Citing data quality issues and significant increase in divergence in consumption patterns, the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, in a shock move, has decided not to release the Consumer Expenditure Survey results of 2017-2018.
After the Centre decided to scrap the report, Twitter started hitting out at Modi government for junking consumer survey.
Here's what Twitterati had to say:
The ministry said in a release that it had seen media reports regarding Consumer Expenditure Survey by the NSO stating that consumer spending is falling and the report has been withheld due to its 'adverse' findings. "We would like to emphatically state that there is a rigorous procedure for vetting of data and reports which are produced through surveys. All such submissions which come to the Ministry are draft in nature and cannot be deemed to be the final report," the ministry said.
It said the Advisory Committee on National Accounts Statistics has also separately recommended that for rebasing of the GDP series, 2017-18 is not an appropriate year to be used as the new base year. "In view of the data quality issues, the Ministry has decided not to release the Consumer Expenditure Survey results of 2017-2018," the release said. It said that the National Statistical Office (NSO) carried out an all-India survey on household consumption expenditure in the 75th round during the period July 2017 to June 2018.
