Sources & data

Last updated: August 2026

Source hierarchy

Primary official sources are preferred, always. For India that means the Reserve Bank of India, the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, the Government of India and SEBI. For the United States, the Federal Reserve, the Bureau of Economic Analysis, the Bureau of Labor Statistics and the Treasury. For China, the People’s Bank of China and the National Bureau of Statistics, read with the care that series deserves. The same rule holds for every other economy the work covers: the central bank and the national statistics agency come first — Bank Indonesia and BPS, the State Bank of Vietnam and GSO, Banco Central do Brasil and IBGE, Banxico and INEGI, the South African Reserve Bank and Stats SA among them — followed by the finance ministry and the securities regulator. Cross-country work uses the World Bank, the IMF, the BIS and the OECD where a single comparable frame matters more than national precision — which, for ranking questions, it usually does. Market-access and investability questions draw on MSCI and the other index providers for classification and weight, and on the exchanges themselves for listings, turnover and ownership. Secondary sources are used for context, never as the load-bearing series when a primary exists.

Revisions

Macro data is revised after publication, routinely and sometimes heavily. Work records the vintage it used. When a source revises history under a published conclusion, that is the source’s event, not this practice’s error — but it is reported rather than silently absorbed, and where it changes a conclusion the corrections policy applies.

Breaks, gaps and missing data

Series breaks and definitional changes are recorded rather than smoothed over. India’s CPI rebasing and its unusually restrictive urban definition are standing examples discussed on this site. A missing observation is shown as missing; a country whose latest report is too old to compare fairly is shown as not comparable rather than carried forward. Where a source observation is inconsistent with its own series, it is omitted and the omission is documented where the figure appears.

Transformations

Every transformation is stated where it is used: currency conversion names the rate and the averaging, inflation adjustment names the deflator, an index names its base, per-head scaling names the population series. The site’s one standing transformation is stated on the data desk: currency indices computed from annual-average official exchange rates. Purchasing-power adjustments are used only where the question is about living standards or real size, and are named when they are.

Cross-country comparability

Comparing eight economies means comparing eight statistical systems. Frequencies differ; reporting lags differ; India’s fiscal year runs April to March while annual observations from international sources are calendar-aligned by the source; methodologies change at different times in different places. Emerging-market classification itself differs between index providers and institutions, so no comparison here claims to use the list of emerging markets. Comparisons name their frame, and the frame is chosen by the question.

Timestamps

Every figure carries its source series ID, its observation years and its retrieval date, in the source line, the cell or the drawer where the figure lives. There is no live-data pretence anywhere on this site: annual observations update when the source releases, and the page says so.

Questions about a specific series or method can go to inquiries@kakderesearch.com. See also the corrections & revisions policy and the disclaimer.