The availability of accurate and timely information on major aggregates of the economy is probably the foremost requirement for assessing the latest trends and formulating appropriate policies.
Realising this need, the statistics department of the State Bank organised a two-day workshop on "collaboration among data compilers and users" to enhance interaction among them.
Addressing the opening session of the workshop on 8th May 2006, State Bank Governor Shamshad Akhtar called upon the statistical agencies of the country to gain public trust by providing reliable and timely data, with comprehensive coverage.
The Government was very much aware of the central role the statistical information plays in informing and influencing the country's effort towards economic growth, prosperity and employment creation. Statistical information also helps in identifying the problem areas and in designing targeted interventions, monitoring and evaluating development programmes.
Official statistics should be made available on impartial basis by the statistical agencies to honour citizens' entitlement to public information and also meet the test of practical utility.
Shamshad was particularly concerned about upgrading the quality of data to meet international standards. She asserted that "in the era of globalisation we cannot ignore the importance of adopting international standards in our statistical system".
This was crucial both in terms of ensuring comparability of statistics across countries and providing reassurance to users that our statistics meet acceptable standards of quality and consistency.
"With the adoption of international standards of quality and dissemination, Pakistan has now become a member of General Data Dissemination System (GDDS) of IMF".
This will further assist to develop our statistical system in producing comprehensive and accurate statistics for policy-making and analysis. Pakistan, the Governor advised, should also work to achieve another set of standards, Special Data Dissemination Standard (SDDS) which would further enhance the credibility of country's statistics in the international community.
We feel that the State Bank has taken a very healthy and laudable initiative of bringing the data compilers and users together to understand each other's point of view. It is very important for the data users to know the methodology of compiling and computing data and its limitations before attempting to analyse it.
At the same time, it is also necessary for the data compilers to collect and present the data in a way that is easily comprehensible. A lot of misperceptions about the data can be removed and credibility of the compiling agencies improved if there is proper understanding and rapport between the users and producers of data.
Having said that, it is important to note that this is not an easy task. Data processing is a highly professional and sophisticated job undertaken generally by highly educated people in their fields and it is not easy for the users to understand all the tricks of the trade. The international dimension added to the job by following the IMF or other international standards compounds the complexity of the task.
Therefore, it is important for the data collecting agencies like the State Bank to select the users of data for such workshops very carefully and repeat the process once every year to keep them updated. In our view, it would also help if data compilers meet among themselves at regular intervals to exchange information and review their methodology to find a common ground. For instance, price and stock exchange indices are now published by various agencies and it is difficult for the ordinary person to select the right source.
We are not advocating for some kind of regimentation or complete unanimity of views but would urge them to present their statistics in a way that does not add to the confusion. The main idea behind all such efforts and exercises should be not only the dissemination of the right information but restoration of credibility and winning the trust of the public regarding authenticity of their statistics.
When the government, for instance, says that poverty and unemployment have gone down, prices are stable and other economic indicators are positive, the common man may be able to see and believe these facts and not grin disdainfully to show utter lack of trust in such claims.