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Nowcasting Indian GDP

Author

Listed:
  • Daniela Bragoli
  • Jack Fosten

Abstract

Nowcasting has become a useful tool for making timely predictions of gross domestic product (GDP) in a data†rich environment. However, in developing economies this is more challenging due to substantial revisions in GDP data and the limited availability of predictor variables. Taking India as a leading case, we use a dynamic factor model nowcasting method to analyse these two issues. Firstly, we propose to compare nowcasts of the first release of GDP to those of the final release to assess differences in their predictability. Secondly, we expand a standard set of predictors typically used for nowcasting GDP with nominal and international series, in order to proxy the variation in missing employment and service sector variables in India. We find that the factor model improves over several benchmarks, including bridge equations, but only for the final GDP release and not for the first release. Also, the nominal and international series improve predictions over and above real series. This suggests that future studies of nowcasting in developing economies which have similar issues of data revisions and availability as India should be careful in analysing first†vs. final†release GDP data, and may find that predictions are improved when additional variables from more timely international data sources are included.

Suggested Citation

  • Daniela Bragoli & Jack Fosten, 2018. "Nowcasting Indian GDP," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 80(2), pages 259-282, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:obuest:v:80:y:2018:i:2:p:259-282
    DOI: 10.1111/obes.12219
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    Cited by:

    1. Oguzhan Cepni & I. Ethem Guney & Norman R. Swanson, 2020. "Forecasting and nowcasting emerging market GDP growth rates: The role of latent global economic policy uncertainty and macroeconomic data surprise factors," Journal of Forecasting, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 39(1), pages 18-36, January.
    2. Mahmood, Asif & Masood, Hina, 2024. "A High-frequency Monthly Measure of Real Economic Activity in Pakistan," MPRA Paper 121838, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    3. Caruso, Alberto, 2018. "Nowcasting with the help of foreign indicators: The case of Mexico," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 160-168.
    4. Chien-jung Ting & Yi-Long Hsiao & Rui-jun Su, 2022. "Application of the Real-Time Tourism Data in Nowcasting the Service Consumption in Taiwan," Journal of Applied Finance & Banking, SCIENPRESS Ltd, vol. 12(4), pages 1-4.
    5. Danilo Cascaldi-Garcia & Matteo Luciani & Michele Modugno, 2024. "Lessons from nowcasting GDP across the world," Chapters, in: Michael P. Clements & Ana Beatriz Galvão (ed.), Handbook of Research Methods and Applications in Macroeconomic Forecasting, chapter 8, pages 187-217, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    6. Jan Radovan & Igor Masten, 2025. "Nowcasting economic activity in a small open CESEE economy using mixed frequency data," Empirica, Springer;Austrian Institute for Economic Research;Austrian Economic Association, vol. 52(4), pages 721-776, November.
    7. I. A. Kirichenko & A. V. Smirnov, 2024. "Composite Supply Index of Investment Products as a Proxy Indicator of Fixed Capital Investment," Studies on Russian Economic Development, Springer, vol. 35(2), pages 215-225, April.
    8. Jack Fosten & Shaoni Nandi, 2023. "Nowcasting from cross‐sectionally dependent panels," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 38(6), pages 898-919, September.
    9. Bantis, Evripidis & Clements, Michael P. & Urquhart, Andrew, 2023. "Forecasting GDP growth rates in the United States and Brazil using Google Trends," International Journal of Forecasting, Elsevier, vol. 39(4), pages 1909-1924.
    10. João C. Claudio & Katja Heinisch & Oliver Holtemöller, 2020. "Nowcasting East German GDP growth: a MIDAS approach," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 58(1), pages 29-54, January.
    11. Chien-jung Ting & Yi-Long Hsiao, 2022. "Nowcasting the GDP in Taiwan and the Real-Time Tourism Data," Advances in Management and Applied Economics, SCIENPRESS Ltd, vol. 12(3), pages 1-2.
    12. Pérez, Fernando, 2018. "Nowcasting Peruvian GDP using Leading Indicators and Bayesian Variable Selection," Working Papers 2018-010, Banco Central de Reserva del Perú.
    13. Alina Stundziene & Vaida Pilinkiene & Jurgita Bruneckiene & Andrius Grybauskas & Mantas Lukauskas & Irena Pekarskiene, 2024. "Future directions in nowcasting economic activity: A systematic literature review," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 38(4), pages 1199-1233, September.
    14. Rudrani Bhattacharya & Bornali Bhandari & Sudipto Mundle, 2023. "Nowcasting India’s Quarterly GDP Growth: A Factor-Augmented Time-Varying Coefficient Regression Model (FA-TVCRM)," Journal of Quantitative Economics, Springer;The Indian Econometric Society (TIES), vol. 21(1), pages 213-234, March.
    15. Pradeep Mishra & Khder Alakkari & Mostafa Abotaleb & Pankaj Kumar Singh & Shilpi Singh & Monika Ray & Soumitra Sankar Das & Umme Habibah Rahman & Ali J. Othman & Nazirya Alexandrovna Ibragimova & Gulf, 2021. "Nowcasting India Economic Growth Using a Mixed-Data Sampling (MIDAS) Model (Empirical Study with Economic Policy Uncertainty–Consumer Prices Index)," Data, MDPI, vol. 6(11), pages 1-15, November.
    16. Dahlhaus, Tatjana & Guénette, Justin-Damien & Vasishtha, Garima, 2017. "Nowcasting BRIC+M in real time," International Journal of Forecasting, Elsevier, vol. 33(4), pages 915-935.
    17. Kaustubh, Kaustubh & Ranjan, Abhishek, 2025. "A multi-factor GDP nowcast model for India," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 147(C).
    18. Dibyendu Maiti & Naveen Kumar & Debajit Jha & Soumyadipta Sarkar, 2024. "Post-COVID Recovery and Long-Run Forecasting of Indian GDP with Factor-Augmented Error Correction Model (FECM)," Computational Economics, Springer;Society for Computational Economics, vol. 63(3), pages 1095-1120, March.
    19. Caruso, Alberto, 2019. "Macroeconomic news and market reaction: Surprise indexes meet nowcasting," International Journal of Forecasting, Elsevier, vol. 35(4), pages 1725-1734.
    20. Andreini, Paolo & Hasenzagl, Thomas & Reichlin, Lucrezia & Senftleben-König, Charlotte & Strohsal, Till, 2023. "Nowcasting German GDP: Foreign factors, financial markets, and model averaging," International Journal of Forecasting, Elsevier, vol. 39(1), pages 298-313.
    21. Han Liu & Yongjing Wang & Haiyan Song & Ying Liu, 2023. "Measuring tourism demand nowcasting performance using a monotonicity test," Tourism Economics, , vol. 29(5), pages 1302-1327, August.
    22. Bhadury, Soumya & Ghosh, Saurabh & Kumar, Pankaj, 2019. "Nowcasting GDP Growth Using a Coincident Economic Indicator for India," MPRA Paper 96007, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    23. Fosten, Jack & Nandi, Shaoni, 2025. "Nowcasting U.S. state-level CO2 emissions and energy consumption," International Journal of Forecasting, Elsevier, vol. 41(1), pages 20-30.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • C38 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Multiple or Simultaneous Equation Models; Multiple Variables - - - Classification Methdos; Cluster Analysis; Principal Components; Factor Analysis
    • C53 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Econometric Modeling - - - Forecasting and Prediction Models; Simulation Methods
    • E37 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Prices, Business Fluctuations, and Cycles - - - Forecasting and Simulation: Models and Applications
    • O11 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Macroeconomic Analyses of Economic Development
    • O47 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Growth and Aggregate Productivity - - - Empirical Studies of Economic Growth; Aggregate Productivity; Cross-Country Output Convergence

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