Pakistan: Govt fudges national accounts to paint rosy economic picture, says report

The Imran Khan authorities’s rebasing of the GDP leading to a better development charge and the financial system’s growth has spawned speculations that the federal government has fudged nationwide accounts to color a rosy image and draw political capital, a media report mentioned.

If anybody thought they’ll use the improved numbers to point out that fewer individuals slept on empty stomachs or the variety of unemployed had decreased due to rebasing GDP, they’re mistaken. Rebasing would not make international locations or individuals richer; it’s nearly up to date knowledge for policymakers to make knowledgeable public funding and taxation selections, reported Daybreak.

The GDP rebasing is a strategy of changing an previous base yr with a more moderen one — often each 5 years — to maintain tempo with value evolution and adjustments within the financial system’s construction extra time to seize present financial situations, mentioned the Pakistani publication.

The calculation of nationwide accounts to FY16 from FY06 has elevated the financial system’s dimension by virtually 16.5 per cent to USD 347 bn and jacked up the FY2021 development charge from 3.9pc to a 14-year-high of 5.6pc. Even on the previous base yr, the GDP development charge was revised as much as 5.4pc owing to the incorporation of the ultimate knowledge on business, agriculture and providers.

It got here after the 104th assembly of the NAC, chaired by Planning Secretary Abdul Aziz Uqaili, the revised figures of the GDP have been permitted.

On account of the rebasing train, the expansion charge improved from the sooner estimate of three.94pc to five.4pc, whereas the scale of the financial system rose to USD 346.76 billion from the provisional estimate of USD 296 billion, in line with the Nationwide Accounts Committee, which permitted these figures on Thursday, mentioned Daybreak.