The Handbook of Statistics on the Indian Economy is a comprehensive database of macroeconomic and financial information, which is being made available by the Reserve Bank annually since 1998. It is simultaneously released in electronic form on the Bank’s Data Warehouse portal “Database on Indian Economy (DBIE)” (https://dbie.rbi.org.in), where it is regularly updated.

2. The Handbook for the year 2019-20, the 22nd in the series, contains 240 statistical tables, covering time series 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 at varying frequencies. In this issue, the format of some tables have been revised for better presentation of information.

3. The publication is brought out by a team in the Data Management and Dissemination Division (DMDD) in the Department of Statistics and Information Management (DSIM) under the guidance of Dr. A. R. Joshi, Officer-in-Charge, and comprising Shri Debasis Nandi, Director; Dr. Lal Bahadur Singh and Shri Hari Om Tiwari, Assistant Advisers; Shri Ashis Nayak, Research Officer; Shri Srijan Hazra, Manager and Shri Abhinav Shekhar, Assistant. The compilation of the Handbook involved a number of officers and staff from various Departments of the Bank, viz., Department of Economic and Policy Research, Department of External Investment and Operations, Financial Markets Operations Department, Financial Markets Regulation Department, Internal Debt Management Department, Monetary Policy Department, Department of Currency Management, Department of Regulation, Department of Payment and Settlement Systems and Deposit Insurance and Credit Guarantee Corporation. They deserve special mention for their efforts in ensuring real time updates and timely validation of reports, while working in constrained conditions due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

4. We welcome comments and suggestions on the Handbook, which may be sent (i) through the feedback button available on DBIE portal (https://dbie.rbi.org.in); or (ii) to the email or (iii) to the Director, Data Management and Dissemination Division, Department of Statistics and Information Management, Reserve Bank of India, C-9, Bandra-Kurla Complex, Mumbai 400051.

Sd/-
(O. P. Mall)
Executive Director
September 18, 2020