RAS question
Which organization publishes the Balance of Payments data for India?
Correct answer: (A) RBI.
The Reserve Bank of India publishes India's Balance of Payments data.
Explanation
India's Balance of Payments data is published by the Reserve Bank of India. The Reserve Bank of India's Special Data Dissemination Standards page for Balance of Payment lists RBI-hosted Balance of Payment releases by year, including the latest entry shown for 2026-2027. The core exam point is that BoP is not a general planning, national accounts or trade-statistics item, but an external-sector data series issued by the central bank. RBI publishes the data on a quarterly and annual basis and follows the IMF's BPM6 framework. For RAS, the trigger word is "Balance of Payments": link it directly with RBI, not with NITI Aayog, NSO or the Commerce Ministry.
Why the other options are wrong
- (B) NITI Aayog is a policy and planning body; RBI, not NITI Aayog, is the publisher of India's BoP data.
- (C) CSO/NSO is associated here with GDP data, whereas Balance of Payments is an external-sector series published by RBI.
- (D) The Ministry of Commerce publishes trade data, but the question asks for Balance of Payments data, which is published by RBI.
Concept
This tests the Indian Economy syllabus area on external-sector statistics and the institutional source of official data. It recurs in RAS because exams often ask candidates to match economic indicators with the agency that publishes them.