B N KumarMumbai, Dec. 29 -- The IMF has long said that it does not verify the national data supplied by its member governments. A fact that surely highlights a structural weakness long understood by economists but rarely acknowledged in public debate. The Fund and other global agencies design the statistical templates that countries are expected to follow.
However, none of them operate as an independent auditing mechanism nor possess the mandate to test the accuracy of national accounts.
Instead, these August bodies depend almost entirely on the competence and integrity of member states' statistical systems.
Governments nevertheless often deploy the Fund's or other international rankings as if they were independent seals of approval, blu...