The Handbook of Statistics on the Indian Economy covering macroeconomic and financial data is being brought out by the Bank since 1998. It is also simultaneously released for public access in electronic form on the “Database on Indian Economy (DBIE): Reserve Bank’s Data Warehouse (http://dbie.rbi.org.in). The electronic version on the DBIE website is updated on a regular basis.

2. The present volume for the year 2015-16, 18th in the series, contains 248 statistical tables. It covers time series statistics on a wide range of economic and financial indicators pertaining to national income aggregates, output, prices, money, banking, financial markets, public finances, foreign trade, balance of payments and select socio-economic indicators, which are released at various frequencies.

3. This publication is brought out by the Data Management and Dissemination Division (DMDD), Department of Statistics and Information Management (DSIM). The work has been carried out by Smt. Sushila Augustine, Director; Shri Amar Nath Yadav and Smt. Vijaya Gangadaran, Assistant Advisers; Shri Hari Om Tiwari and Shri Pankaj Kumar, Research Officers; Shri Balaji Bhanvase and Shri Paresh Saple, Assistants; under the guidance of Dr. Anil Kumar Sharma, Adviser and Dr. Goutam Chatterjee, Officer-in-Charge.

4. The support and active co-operation provided by the Department of Economic and Policy Research, Department of External Investment and Operations, Financial Markets Operations Department, Foreign Exchange Department, Internal Debt Management Department, Monetary Policy Department, Financial Markets Regulation Department, Department of Co-operative Banking Regulation, Department of Currency Management, Department of Banking Regulation, Department of Payment and Settlement Systems and Deposit Insurance & Credit Guarantee Corporation deserve appreciation.

5. We welcome comments and suggestions on the Handbook which may please be forwarded at the following address: The Director, Data Management and Dissemination Division, Department of Statistics and Information Management, Reserve Bank of India, C-9, 3rd Floor, Bandra-Kurla Complex, Bandra (East), Mumbai 400051. Feedback may also be forwarded to us by e-mail or through a feedback button available on DBIE site.

G. Mahalingam
Executive Director
September 15, 2016