India Admits Gold Data Error That Pushed Trade Gap to Record
Live Mint-- Follow Bloomberg India on WhatsApp for exclusive content and analysis on what billionaires, businesses and markets are doing. India’s government acknowledged it miscalculated import figures for precious metals for months, an error that pushed the trade deficit to a record in November and caused the rupee to plunge to an all-time low. The Ministry of Commerce and Industry said in a statement Thursday it revised import figures from April to November after discovering the discrepancy, which had resulted from migrating to a new data transmission system. Preliminary estimates released earlier this week suggested gold imports for November stood at $9.84 billion — about $5 billion, or a third, lower than what was previously reported for the month. The ministry said Thursday it makes revisions to its figures “from time to time,” based on “data that’s received late, amendments in the respective months and qualitative corrections wherever required.” Preliminary revisions show gold imports were $37.39 billion in the April-November period, down $11.7 billion from previously reported.