Centre to release new capex survey, monthly labour force data from FY26; new release date for IIP

Beginning April, the factory output data, compiled through the Index of Industrial Production (IIP), will be released on a new date of 28th of every month instead of the 12th of every month at present. Officials said the intent is to reduce the time lag in the release of the industrial output data from 42 days at present.

A deferment in the release date by over a fortnight would mean that IIP data hereon would be for the latest month. For instance, on February 12, IIP data was released for the month of December whereas retail inflation data, released on the same day, was for January. The new release date for the IIP from April onwards will help the ministry to issue data for the immediate preceding month.

The all-India IIP is a composite indicator that measures the short-term changes in the volume of production of a basket of industrial products during a given period with respect to the base period. It is a key figure to measure the general level of industrial activity in the economy on a monthly basis and also forms a crucial input for compilation of Gross Value Added (GVA) of manufacturing sector in Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of the country on quarterly basis.

Private capex survey

The ministry has also lined up the new private capex survey report for release in April. The forward-looking survey on private sector capex investment intentions is aimed at measuring the capital investment intentions of the private corporate sector covering non-financial and financial corporations through collection of information from major enterprises.

The survey will compile information on capex expenditure incurred during the last three years and projected capex for the next two years including breakdown of capex by type of assets and industries. “Data collected in this survey will help to assess the expected investment to be made by the enterprises for two consecutive financial years (namely, 2024-25 and 2025-26). Also, it will provide an indication of preferred industries / sectors where major investment is likely to be made in the coming years,” the ministry had said last year.

Monthly Periodic Labour Force Survey

The growing demand for more frequent data about the labour market will be met through monthly releases of Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) for both rural and urban areas from May onwards. The statistics ministry plans to release monthly PLFS data on the 15th of every month for the previous month. Quarterly PLFS data will also be released a month after the end of the quarter. For instance, monthly PLFS reports will be released on May 15, June 16, and July 15, and the quarterly PLFS report will be released on August 18 for the April-June quarter.

The ministry is also likely to release a back series, at least for the previous 12 months, with adjustments made in line with the higher standard error of the new monthly series of the PLFS to make the data comparable. Since the sample size would be lower than the current labour surveys, the standard error for the monthly surveys would be a bit higher, officials said.

Standard error is used to measure sampling error as it measures how accurately the mean of a sample distribution represents the mean of the population. In simpler words, it indicates the level of variation between different samples of a population and the population itself.

The National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) under MoSPI had launched PLFS in April 2017. Quarterly bulletins provide details of labour force indicators such as Labour Force Participation Rate (LFPR), Worker Population Ratio (WPR), Unemployment Rate (UR). At present, the MoSPI releases rural PLFS data on an annual basis and urban PLFS data on a quarterly basis along with an annual report which combines data for both urban and rural on an annual basis. Other employment surveys such as the survey by the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) comes out on a weekly and monthly basis.