Already battered by corruption scandals, and less than a week after an embarrassing policy U-turn, the Indian government admitted on Friday that it had accidentally inflated this year's export figures by more than $9 billion. The cause was a glitch in the computer system that collates the trade data, Trade Secretary Rahul Khullar told reporters. Months of export and trade deficit data have had to be revised.
"How many people would come and tell you, 'OK we goofed'? There was a mistake," Khullar said. "There is no shame in admitting that there is something wrong," he added. With export growth slower than first thought, the trade deficit has now swelled by $9 billion, a worrying sign that emerged on the same day that New Delhi revised down its annual economic growth forecast to 7.5 percent from about 9 percent.
Growth rates for individual sectors were also distorted by computer errors, Khullar said. For example, the performance of the engineering goods sector had been exaggerated because certain shipments had been incorrectly classified. Exports of petroleum products, on the other hand, had been under-estimated. The ministry had consistently emphasised that the data released each month was provisional, and it had been open about concerns that the figures were unreliable.