Reading guide
Prices change over time. A larger rupee number may mean the economy produced more, or simply that the same things became more expensive. The dashboard’s price toggle helps separate those two stories.
The most important choice
Both views are correct. They answer different questions.
Nominal · current prices
Nominal values use the prices that prevailed in each year. They show the actual cash size of tax receipts, debt, exports, and imports — but they combine real activity with inflation.
nominal change ≈ real change + price changeReal · inflation-adjusted
Real values remove the effect of changing prices. Every year is expressed at the price level of a fixed base year — making distant years more comparable.
real value = nominal value ÷ price index × 100A simple example
Imagine revenue was ₹100 lakh crore in the base year. Later, it reaches ₹180 lakh crore — but the price index also rises from 100 to 180.
The cash amount grew, but its purchasing power did not.
A second lens
Absolute levels can be read in ₹ lakh crore or converted to USD billion using each year’s official average INR per USD rate (FRED AEXINUS). Use USD for international scale; use INR for the domestic fiscal story.
Display currency
USD views divide the selected INR level by that year’s exchange rate. The shape of a long series therefore embeds both economic growth and the rupee’s path against the dollar.
USD bn = ₹ L Cr × 1000 / (INR per USD)What stays put
Debt-to-GDP, tax-to-GDP, inflation, and Real GDP growth do not change when you flip ₹ / $. Cycle tax growth % is also kept on the INR series so FX does not rewrite the percentage.
Real + USD = CPI-deflated INR, then FX — not US CPIIndia’s updated national accounts
On 27 February 2026, MoSPI replaced the 2011–12 GDP base year with 2022–23. The dashboard lets you use either price anchor whenever Real view is selected — a base-year toggle appears next to the price switch.
Useful for comparing the dashboard with publications and research built on the previous national-accounts series.
Expresses constant-price rupee values in a more recent price scale aligned with India’s new GDP reference year.
Real tax, debt, export, and import levels are rescaled. In the selected base year, the nominal and corresponding real level are equal by construction.
Percentage growth, inflation rates, and GDP ratios. Changing only the price anchor changes the unit of account, not the underlying economic path.
What the toggles change
Switching Nominal / Real, Base, or ₹ / $ in the dashboard header only affects series with a price or currency basis.
| Dashboard measure | Changes? | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Tax revenue, public debt | Yes | These are absolute values that can be shown at current or constant prices, and in ₹ or USD. |
| Exports and imports | Yes | The price toggle separates current-price trade value from inflation-adjusted purchasing power; the currency toggle converts the same levels to USD. |
| Tax-to-GDP, debt-to-GDP | No | Both parts of the ratio use the same price basis, so inflation and FX cancel out. |
| CPI and WPI inflation | No | These already measure the rate at which prices are changing. |
| Real GDP and infrastructure growth | No | The base selector re-expresses rupee levels with a CPI deflator; it does not apply official MoSPI methodology revisions to growth rates. |
| Cycle tax growth % | No | Percent growth is computed on the underlying INR series so the FX path does not rewrite the growth story. |
Three surfaces, three yardsticks
India vs Worldputs India next to the world’s major economies and the EU bloc. It deliberately uses a different measuring stick from this national page, so the two should not be read as one continuous dataset.
National · this dashboard
Year label Y means FY Y/(Y+1). Levels are ₹ lakh crore and respond to the Nominal / Real, base-year, and ₹ / $ toggles, because they are Indian national-accounts concepts. The states view uses the same rupee basis but labels fiscal years by their end year.
2020 = FY 2020–21 · ₹ lakh croreWorld · /compare
IMF WEO and World Bank WDI publish calendar years, so nothing lines up one-to-one with the pages above. Everything is US dollars, PPP international dollars, or percent of GDP — there is no rupee or base-year toggle, only a market-rate versus PPP switch for per-capita scale.
2020 = calendar 2020 · USD, Int$, % of GDPReading the dashboard
No single indicator describes the economy. Read several together and look for stories that agree — or meaningful contradictions.
Use a 10–15 year window so one unusual year does not dominate the story.
A large gap indicates that inflation explains more of the apparent growth.
Debt-to-GDP and tax-to-GDP reveal burden and capacity relative to the economy’s size.
Real GDP, infrastructure, trade, and inflation should be interpreted together.
Keep in mind
Nominal GDP can accelerate because output rose, prices rose, or both.
Debt can rise in rupees while becoming more manageable relative to GDP.
Values come from World Bank WDI, IMF debt databases, and OEA WPI/core-industries releases. Always cross-check the latest MoSPI/RBI primary release before policy use.
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