Fifty-one observations. One economic story.

India’s economy, in constant perspective.

Trace five decades of India’s tax revenue, public debt, real GDP growth, CPI and WPI inflation, and trade — then remove inflation to see how much growth remains.

51 annual records1975–2025 fiscal yearsWorld Bank · IMF · OEA sources

Choose a cycle

Drag either handle (minimum 10-year window). Every metric and chart below updates instantly.

20112025

Cycle vitals

The window at a glance

Endpoint readings and whole-window statistics for the selected cycle. Click any card to open its full graph.

Real economy pulse

Real vs nominal GDP growth

Nominal growth counts rupees; real growth counts output. The vertical gap between the two lines is, roughly, what inflation added each year.

Year-over-year growth, %. Click legend entries to isolate a series.

Building & trading

Infrastructure momentum and external trade

Core-infrastructure growth (bars, left axis) alongside what India ships out and brings in (lines, right axis, ₹ lakh crore).

Trade levels shown at current prices. Toggle Nominal / Real and ₹ / $ in the header to change price basis and currency.

Fiscal explorer

Tax revenue vs public debt

Tax receipts fund the state; public debt fills the gap. Axes differ in scale — hover to compare each side as a share of GDP.

Levels at current prices. Tooltips include tax-to-GDP and debt-to-GDP ratios.

Stagflation watch

Growth against inflation

Real GDP growth against consumer (CPI) and wholesale (WPI) inflation. Shaded years mark where CPI outran real growth — price pressure eating the expansion.

All series in %, year over year. Amber shading = CPI above real growth for that year.

External buffer

Forex Reserves vs. USD/INR Exchange Rate

External buffers (reserves including gold) against the annual average rupee–dollar rate — how the currency shield and the exchange rate moved together across the cycle.

Reserves in $ billions (left); exchange rate is the annual average INR per USD (right, FRED AEXINUS). Click legend entries to isolate a series.

Structural shift

Sectoral Contribution to GDP

Agriculture, industry, and services as shares of value added — India’s long structural transformation from farm to factory to services.

Value-added shares of GDP, %. Stacks near 100; small residuals (if any) are shown when the WDI trio does not sum cleanly. Click legend entries to isolate a series.

Policy & credit

RBI Repo Rate vs. Bank Credit Growth

The policy rate against year-over-year change in domestic credit to the private sector as a share of GDP — liquidity stance and credit pulse in one frame.

Policy rate (line, left) is the OECD/MEI India central-bank rate. Bars (right) are YoY % change of domestic credit to the private sector as % of GDP — not nominal credit-stock growth. Click legend entries to isolate a series.

Fiscal quality

Capital vs. Revenue Expenditure

How much of central spending builds assets (capital) versus funds current operations and transfers (revenue), each as a share of GDP.

Central government capital and revenue expenditure, % of GDP, from the RBI Handbook Select Fiscal Indicators workbook (data/rbi/Fiscal-Indicators-India.xlsx). Click legend entries to isolate a series.

People & productivity

Real GDP per Capita vs. Labor Force Participation

Constant-price income per person alongside how many people are in the labor force — living standards and labor engagement over the cycle.

Left: constant-price GDP per capita (WDI). Right: labor force participation rate, total %. Survey breaks can create gaps — missing years are left blank. Click legend entries to isolate a series.

Go wider

The same story, at two other scales

This page is India as a whole. The other two surfaces zoom out to the world and in to the states.

India vs WorldSee how India ranks among the world’s majors

India against the twelve largest advanced and emerging economies plus the EU bloc — growth, scale, per-capita income, debt, trade, and structure in US dollars and shares of GDP.

Compare statesBreak the national numbers down by state

GSDP growth and level, own-tax revenue, outstanding liabilities, fiscal deficit, and per-capita NSDP for states and union territories from the RBI Handbook.

Methodology & data notes

Real vs nominal

Constant-price (“Real”) levels deflate nominal levels with a CPI index rebased to 100 in the selected base year — 2011–12 (old national-accounts series) or 2022–23 (new series). Pick the anchor with the Base toggle that appears in Real view.
Rupee levels are derived as ratio-to-GDP × nominal GDP (₹ lakh crore, World Bank WDI).

INR vs USD

The ₹ / $ toggle is a display conversion for absolute levels (exports, imports, tax revenue, public debt). Growth rates, inflation, and GDP ratios are unchanged.
USD billion = ₹ lakh crore × 1000 / annual average INR per USD (FRED AEXINUS). Amounts at or above $1,000 bn are shown as trillions. Real series are converted after CPI deflation — this is not a US-CPI “real USD” rebasing.

Sources

World Bank World Development Indicators — real GDP growth, nominal levels, CPI, trade shares, industry proxy, forex reserves, sectoral VA shares, domestic credit/GDP, constant-price GDP per capita, and labor force participation.
IMF WoRLD — general-government tax/GDP from 1990 (WDI central tax/GDP before 1990).
IMF Fiscal Monitor (1992+) and IMF HPDD (1975–91) — general-government debt/GDP.
Office of the Economic Adviser, DPIIT — WPI fiscal-year indices and the Index of Eight Core Industries.
OECD MEI via DB.Nomics — India central-bank policy rate (bank-rate / repo lineage; same descriptor as FRED IRSTCB01INA156N).
RBI Handbook of Statistics on Indian Economy — central capital and revenue expenditure as % of GDP when the optional local handbook tables are present.

Additional series

Forex reserves are WDI total reserves including gold (FI.RES.TOTL.CD), shown in $ billions. The exchange-rate axis is the annual average INR per USD from FRED AEXINUS.
Sectoral shares are WDI value-added percentages (NV.AGR.TOTL.ZS, NV.IND.TOTL.ZS, NV.SRV.TOTL.ZS). When the trio lands within two percentage points of 100 they are renormalized for a clean stack; larger gaps keep the authentic prints and surface a residual band.
Credit growth is the year-over-year % change of domestic credit to the private sector as a share of GDP (FD.AST.PRVT.GD.ZS) — not growth of the nominal credit stock.
Capital and revenue expenditure (% of GDP) come from the RBI Handbook table “Select Fiscal Indicators of the Central Government” when data/rbi/Fiscal-Indicators-India.xlsx (or central-fiscal-indicators-gdp.*) is present. Both series are read from that single workbook. Missing years stay null; they are never interpolated.
Real GDP per capita is WDI constant-price (NY.GDP.PCAP.KD). Labor force participation is WDI total LFPR (SL.TLF.CACT.ZS); survey breaks can leave gaps.

Conventions & caveats

Year label Y denotes Indian fiscal year Y/(Y+1), consistent with WDI annual national accounts for India.
Core-industries growth before the OEA 2011–12 monthly series is an industry value-added proxy, not ICI.
A few single-year WPI/debt gaps at official index-base transitions are linear-filled from neighboring authentic observations (never extrapolated beyond the sample). Extended chart series (reserves, sectors, policy rate, credit, GDP per capita, LFPR, capex/revexp) are never interpolated.