The International Monetary Fund/World Bank will provide technical assistance to improve/strengthen compilation of fiscal accounts to Pakistan and the government has given its assurance that it would adopt government finance management manual GFSM (2001) over the medium term.
This was revealed in Article-IV consultation report uploaded on the IMF website in the second week of July stated that "the authorities have hinted their intent to adopt the methodology GFSM 2001 over the medium term" and in line with the Board decision of October 2010 to strengthen fiscal analysis". The Pakistan government has compiled, with IMF assistance, a fiscal table in the GFSM 2001 presentation. However the report adds that "further improvements in government finance statistics are needed and the authorities are making progress toward that objective in the context of the Project for the Improvement of Financial Reporting and Auditing (PIFRA)".
The Article IV Consultation report however notes that in Pakistan no data is reported on transactions in non-financial and financial assets and liabilities. And, the report adds that the government reports "higher frequency data for inclusion in the International Financial Statistics (IFS)." The principal issue involving GFS is to reduce the size of the statistical discrepancy between the financial and non-financial accounts which is reported to Middle East and Central Asian Department (MCD).
The IMF Statistics Department's GFSM 2001 updated the 1986 edition of the manual on government finance statistics to cover concepts, definitions, classifications, and accounting rules, as well as provide a comprehensive analytic framework within which the statistics can be summarized and presented in a form appropriate for analysis, planning, and policy determination. GFSM 2001 provides principles for economic and statistical reporting for compiling statistics as well as providing guidelines for the presentation of fiscal statistics.
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