The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has observed that Pakistan's national account data is of poor quality and inconsistent. The data of national income account, particularly various components of aggregate demand is generally of poor quality and its various components varies as compared to fiscal, trade and private sector credit data.

For instance, in the Budget 2005-06, there is 41.9 percent increase in public sector development expenditure, but it is very difficult to explain as to how fixed capital formation in the public sector, according to the national income accounts, decreased by 0.4 percent in nominal terms and by 14.1 percent in real terms.

In addition, although small revision in previous year's national accounts data at the time of releasing the data for the outgoing year are understandable, drastic changes made every year in these data undermine their credibility.

For instance, according to the Pakistan Economic Survey 2003-04, public sector fixed investment at constant prices increased by 40.8 percent in FY 2004 and the private sector investment increased by 7.9 percent. While, in the Economic Survey 2004-05, growth in public sector investment in FY 2004 has been revised downward to 21.1 percent and the private investment has declined by 11 percent.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2005