Statistical discrepancy
Also called: Discrepancies · Topic: National Income Accounting: GDP, GVA and Welfare · NCERT: Class 12, Ch 2 "National Income Accounting"
Meaning
Statistical discrepancy is a balancing item in the national accounts. GDP is estimated from the production side (adding GVA) and also from the expenditure side (adding C, I, G and net exports). The two use different data, so they rarely match exactly. The discrepancy is the gap that makes the expenditure-side components add up to the production-side GDP. Large discrepancies are one reason experts have questioned how reliable India's 2011-12 GDP series is.
Example
In India's 2024-25 Provisional Estimates (at constant 2011-12 prices), discrepancies were −₹2.92 lakh crore, about −1.6% of GDP of ₹187.97 lakh crore. The negative sign means the expenditure components added up to more than production-side GDP.
Don't confuse with
- Change in stocks: this is a real part of investment (unsold goods piling up). A discrepancy is only an accounting gap with no economic meaning of its own.
Related concepts
- Expenditure method
- Final expenditure
- Open economy national income identity
- Private Final Consumption Expenditure
- Government Final Consumption Expenditure
- Gross Fixed Capital Formation
- Valuables
- Income method
- Functional distribution of income