Video narration
National accounts also cover far more than the shop transactions you happen to see. In real official accounts, data arrive at different times, so statistical discrepancies can appear, and estimates are revised. But the accounting logic remains the cafe logic. Now separate a bigger source of confusion: prices. Imagine the cafe sells 100 identical meals. Last year each costs ₹200, so sales are ₹20,000. This year it still sells 100 meals, but each costs ₹220, so sales are ₹22,000. At current prices, using this year's prices, output is ₹22,000. At constant prices, holding prices to the earlier base-year price, it is ₹20,000. The extra ₹2,000 came from higher prices, not more meals. Constant prices help you see changes in actual output rather than price changes. Scale that up to India. In the commonly cited provisional-estimate vintage for financial year 2023-24, using the 2011-12 base year, India's GDP at current prices was ₹295.36 lakh crore. At constant 2011-12 prices, it was ₹173.82 lakh crore. That release reported real GDP growth of 8.2 percent. These official figures can later be revised as better information arrives; India's 2022-23 national accounts use the same matching-account framework. So, what does GDP measure? Like your cafe bill, it is the value of final output-seen through what India produces, earns, and spends.