ISLAMABAD: The World Bank experts reviewed the methodology of rebasing of national accounts through remote connection, to make it in line with international standard, revealed Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) officials.
The rebasing of national accounts was due in 2015-16, but delayed due to national population census, said the officials while talking to Business Recorder.
The Governing Council of PBS in its 5th meeting in 2013 issued a policy directive to rebase the National Accounts after every ten years. As a result, it was decided to change the base year for national accounts from 2005-06 to 2015-16.
Under the umbrella of rebasing, PBS has conducted various censuses e.g. Census of Manufacturing Industries, Census of Electricity, Census of Exploration Companies, surveys e.g. Rent Survey, Household Integrated Income, and Consumption Survey, Survey on Small & Household Manufacturing Industries, Survey on Other Private Services as well as several other studies.
Further, to ensure consistency among various macroeconomic aggregates, PBS has also changed the reference periods for the compilation of price indices from 2007-08 to 2015-16 and Quantum Index of Manufacturing Industries (QIM) from 2005-06 to 2015-16.
The results of censuses/survey/studies conducted for rebasing purpose were reviewed first internally by compilers/coordinators under the supervision of Member (National Accounts) and then by Technical Review Committee comprising of Deputy Economic Advisor Ministry of Finance, Chief Macro Ministry of Planning, Director Statistics State Bank of Pakistan, Senior Research Economist PIDE, Chairman Statistics Department Quaid-e-Azam University and Industry Experts from 23rd July 2020 to 08th September 2020. The suggestions of the committee were incorporated.
In order to make the rebasing methodology in line with international standard, Methodology of Rebasing of National Accounts was reviewed by World Bank experts (through remote connection) from 9th November 2021 to9thDecember 2021.
At the final stage, the National Accounts Committee (NAC), having representatives from various Federal and Provincial governments Ministries /Divisions as well as Public and Private Sector Organizations, under the chairmanship of Abdul Aziz Uqaili, Secretary, Ministry of Planning Development and Special Initiatives approved the rebasing of national accounts from 2005-06 to 2015-16.
While the change of base of national accounts is a gigantic and challenging task, it also provides an opportunity to enhance the coverage of economic activities and improve the estimation methodologies and sources of data. The Pakistan Bureau of Statistics has capitalized on this opportunity and has made all-out efforts to implement the recommendations of 2008 SNA, explore new sources of data, and enhance the coverage of economic activities described in the Pakistan Standard Industrial Classification (PSIC-2010)adopted from the International Standard Industrial Classifications (ISIC) Rev. Efforts have also been made to capture the products in each economic activity as described in the Central Product Classification (CPC) Version 2.
Officials said that the economy of Pakistan is broadly divided into agriculture, industrial activities and services. While the structure of dissemination of data relating to agriculture has remained the same in 2015-16 rebasing as was during the 2005-06 base, a slight adjustment has been made in the industrial activities due to inclusion of water supply industry (the private sector only)along with electricity and gas industries.
However, keeping in view the consistent demand of users and following the structure of PSIC-2010, Services industries have witnessed significant changes in dissemination structure due to separate estimation of various activities as per following detail: (i) accommodation and food services activities (hotels & restaurants), which were used to be estimated along with wholesale and retail trade (WRT) in 2005-06rebasing, have been estimated separately; (ii) information and communication industries have been estimated separately in 2015-16base. In 2005-06 base estimates, the information and communication activities were used to be included in other private services and transport, storage & communication respectively; (iii) education, human health and social work activities have also been estimated separately in 2015-16 rebasing which were parts of other private services and general government in 2005-06 rebasing.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2022