Finance Division, Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP), Ministry of Finance has proposed a 40 million rupee 'Digitization of the Pakistan Economic Survey' project for 2018-19 which envisages real time availability of federal and provincial data to enable the policymakers to take appropriate mitigating measures in time. In addition, the project seeks to preserve data published in previous economic surveys and create subject-wise links of time series data that would strengthen the capacity of analysts to map the economic journey of the country. Its formal approval, officials stated, would be during he first week of April when the priorities committee would discuss and approve recurrent and development expenditure of ministries and autonomous bodies. This project must be fully supported given that there is a need for real time data with more relevant analyses that are based on current data.
Analysts argue that had real time data been available to the incumbent government it would have become aware of the ineffectivity of its export promotion as well as import reducing measures much sooner and taken more appropriate mitigating measures. As matters stand today in spite of these measures to reduce the trade imbalance, whose cost was borne at the taxpayers' expense, the current account deficit is widening and the pressure on foreign exchange reserves has exacerbated leading to reserves unable to meet three months of imports - the minimum requirement as agreed by economists. The same applies to assessing the effectivity of major policy decisions targeting specific sectors including agriculture, energy, and manufacturing,
Be that as it may, Pakistan Economic Surveys are prepared by the Economic Advisor's Wing which comes under the administrative control of the Ministry of Finance. The source of macroeconomic data cited in the surveys is mainly the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) which, unlike the Economic Advisor's Wing, has the necessary manpower to undertake national data compilation from various government and industry sources as well as from surveys carried out by its own staff. PBS previously under the administrative control of the Ministry of Finance has been established as a separate Ministry of Statistics, with Ramesh Kuman Vankwani as Minister - a decision taken by the Abbasi-led government.
De-linking the PBS from the Ministry of Finance was a long-standing demand based on the general perception, backed by evidence repeatedly presented by independent economists, that PBS was susceptible to data manipulation by the parent ministry to reflect a performance better than was in fact the case. In other words, the Ministry of Finance was disabling itself from taking informed mitigating measures based on accurate data. It is too early to assess the outcome of this policy decision with many continuing to voice concerns that the minister in charge is from the ruling party and therefore may be directed by his party's leadership to release data that shows the economic performance in a favourable light, especially in an election year.
To conclude, there is a need for the government to not only strengthen the analytical capacity of the Economic Advisor's Wing by approving the proposed project but also make the PBS independent from executive control which would enable the government to undertake appropriate measures in a timely fashion.