Pakistan is not yet a subscriber to the International Monetary Fund's (IMF) Special Data Dissemination Standard (SDDS), but has participated in the less rigorous General Data Dissemination System since 2003. It has set several target dates for SDDS subscription over the years, but has missed them all. Nonetheless, Pakistan continues to express its intent to achieve SDDS subscription and has made improvements in its data regime over the years. In 2004, the IMF produced a Report on the Observance of Standards and Codes that identified several areas in which Pakistan needed to make improvements, particularly with regard to its handling of national accounts data and government finance statistics. Pakistan's significant progress in dealing with monetary statistics inspired the IMF to conduct a review of that aspect of the data regime, resulting in the publication of a new ROSC in 2007. According to the IMF's 2005 Article IV Consultation report, Pakistan is committed to the implementation of internationally accepted standards, and the 2007 Article IV report (published in 2008) reiterates this commitment.

General Overview

As their respective websites disclose, Pakistan is not yet a subscriber to the International Monetary Fund's Special Data Dissemination Standard (SDDS), but has participated in the less rigorous General Data Dissemination System (GDDS) since November 2003. A 2002 IMF Article IV Consultation Report contained the information that Pakistan had declared its intent to become an SDDS subscriber by 2003. This goal was not met, but the IMF's 2004 Report on the Observance of Standards and Codes (ROSC) data module declared the expectation that SDDS subscription would occur in 2005. As of September 2008, this goal remains unmet, and the most recent IMF ROSC data module offers no timetable by which Pakistan is expected to meet SDDS requirements. Pakistan has long expressed its strong commitment to achieving internationally accepted data compilation and dissemination standards, and this is evidenced by the country's GDDS participation. However, deficiencies primarily in the handling of monetary statistics continue to obstruct SDDS subscription. Following the publication of the initial ROSC data module in 2004, Pakistan's authorities undertook a significant overhaul of its statistical framework and procedures and developed higher quality source data for its monetary data.

The 2007 ROSC states that "the new data compilation framework is broadly consistent with the Monetary and Financial Statistics Manual (MFSM) recommendations and includes detailed sectoral balance sheets and aggregated surveys" (p. 4). These improvements are what triggered the IMF to publish a new ROSC assessment in 2007. The 2007 ROSC offers a few short-term recommendations to address Pakistan's continuing deficiencies. First, the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) should issue notices of major methodological changes in advance. This should be done on the SBP website and should be accompanied by a clear description of what the changes entail. Supplementary notice could be provided in the SBP's monthly Statistical Bulletin. Second, the SBP should improve the soundness of its methodology by revaluing its Fund positions and gold assets monthly, using end-of-month exchange rates and the market price for gold. Third, the SBP should improve both accuracy and reliability by preparing monetary data revision studies once the central bank has finalized and published its data revision policy. Finally, the SBP should "improve the consistency of data on positions between the SBP and schedule banks" (p. 9). The official response to the ROSC recommendations, which is included in the full 2007 ROSC publication, takes these recommendations up individually. According to this response, the first recommendation has already been implemented, and the remaining three are in process.

The 2004 ROSC found Pakistan's data regime meets most GDDS requirements for coverage, periodicity, and timeliness. The deficient datasets were identified as timeliness with regard to the GDP data and the failure to produce annual wages-and-earnings data. The data shortcomings that keep Pakistan from achieving SDDS membership were more numerous. These were listed as follows: "(1) the monthly analytical accounts of the State Bank of Pakistan with a timeliness of two weeks; (2) monthly transaction data on central government operations with a timeliness of one month; (3) quarterly data on the national accounts, employment, unemployment, wages/earnings, and external debt, all with a timeliness of one quarter; (4) more detailed breakdown of data on central government debt and external debt; (5) annual data on its international investment position; and (6) update and expand the metadata on compilation and dissemination practices" (p. 3).

The IMF's 2007 Article IV Consultations report, published in January 2008, stated that Pakistan currently produced data that was "broadly adequate for effective surveillance," but noted that policy formulation and analysis would be enhanced if improvements were made "in the availability and timeliness of certain key economic statistics" (p. 17). The Pakistani authorities continue to work toward SDDS qualification, and have been focusing on the quarterly publication of national accounts. The Statistical Issues Annex of this report (Annex III) found that the Federal Bureau of Statistics (FBS) had revised the national accounts data in 2004 aiming to bring them into line with the 1993 System of National Accounts. The work on developing quarterly national accounts data was also being carried out by the FBS, with technical assistance in 2005 from the IMF. The FBS has also begun working on compiling quarterly data on employment and unemployment, but had yet to achieve the frequency demanded by SDDS subscription. It is looking into the possibility of making wage and salary data broadly available. The development of three price indices (consumer, wholesale, "sensitive") is another area of FBS responsibility. The first two are produced monthly, while the third is compiled weekly. The so-called "sensitive price index" is calculated from a basket of 46 commodities consumed by Pakistan's poorest citizens, whereas the definitions of CPI and WPI are consistent with those used internationally. A producer price index has not yet been completely developed.

According to the 2007 Article IV report, government finance statistics are compiled in broad accordance with the 1986 edition of the Government Finance Statistics Manual (GFSM 1986). Some concepts and definitions used in GFSM 2001 have been introduced, however, in the compilation of data relating to privatization. The Statistical Issues Annex states that "the scope of central government data is... limited because it does not cover the activity of extrabudgetary funds" (p. 8). Government finance statistics are recorded on a gross basis and, to a large extent, according to the cash-based method of accounting. Contrary to the practice outlined in GFSM 1986, corrections may not be made in the period in which the error occurred. A Project for the Improvement of Financial Reporting and Auditing (PIFRA) has been implemented to address these and other deficiencies, and there are plans to upgrade their standard to the GFSM 2001, but this is contemplated as a medium- or long-term project. Pakistan submits regular reports on central government operations to the Government Finance Statistics Yearbook. For these data, the GFSM standard is applied. The 2008 report, as well as the 2007 ROSC, noted that monetary source data will be improved when the Standardized Report Form framework is fully implemented. Improvements in balance-of-payments data have been achieved by the adoption of the methodology contained in the fifth edition of the Balance of Payments Manual (BPM5) during the preparation phase. However, the data is presented using a combination of BPM5 methodology and an earlier version of the manual. There are problems with certain of the source data, such as the use of customs records by the FBS and exchange records by the SBP, resulting in divergent trade statistics, but these can usually be reconciled after the fact. Efforts to make source data more consistent are ongoing. Finally, the SBP has begun publishing international investment position data on its website on an annual basis. There is a project underway to compile data on the following subjects: "export processing zones, nonresident portfolio equity holdings, and settlements via accounts abroad and intercompany accounts" (p. 9).

The Principles

Comprehensive economic and financial data, disseminated on a timely basis.

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Pakistan is not yet a subscriber to the IMF's SDDS, but has participated in the less rigorous GDDS since 2003. The 2004 data ROSC found Pakistan's data regime to meet most GDDS requirements for coverage, periodicity, and timeliness. The deficient datasets were identified as timeliness with regard to the GDP data and the failure to produce annual wages-and-earnings data. The data shortcomings that keep Pakistan from achieving SDDS membership were more numerous. These were listed as follows: "(1) the monthly analytical accounts of the State Bank of Pakistan with a timeliness of two weeks; (2) monthly transaction data on central government operations with a timeliness of one month; (3) quarterly data on the national accounts, employment, unemployment, wages/earnings, and external debt, all with a timeliness of one quarter; (4) more detailed breakdown of data on central government debt and external debt; (5) annual data on its international investment position; and (6) update and expand the metadata on compilation and dissemination practices" (p. 3). Most of these problems were identified once again in the 2007 Article IV Consultations report. Enough progress had been made in improving monetary data that the IMF conducted a review of Pakistan's data practices in that area, publishing a new data ROSC in 2007 dealing specifically with monetary data. The new ROSC made four recommendations for further action. First, the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) should issue notices of major methodological changes in advance. This should be done on the SBP website and should be accompanied by a clear description of what the changes entail. Supplementary notice could be provided in the SBP's monthly Statistical Bulletin. Second, the SBP should improve the soundness of its methodology by revaluing its Fund positions and gold assets monthly, using end-of-month exchange rates and the market price for gold. Third, the SBP should improve both accuracy and reliability by preparing monetary data revision studies once the central bank has finalized and published its data revision policy. Finally, the SBP should "improve the consistency of data on positions between the SBP and schedule banks" (p. 9). The official response to the ROSC recommendations, which is included in the full 2007 ROSC publication, takes these recommendations up individually. According to this response, the first recommendation has already been implemented, and the remaining three are in process.

Ready and equal access to official statistics.

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Pakistan is not yet a subscriber to the IMF's SDDS, but has participated in the less rigorous GDDS since 2003. It has repeatedly expressed its intent to achieve SDDS specifications, but has thus far missed all target subscription dates. The 2004 ROSC data module noted that although there is good access to most data produced by Pakistan's statistical agencies, simultaneous access for all interested parties is not always achieved. In addition, the ROSC called for the provision of contact information, by sector, on all relevant websites and in printed materials.

Official statistics must have the confidence of their users. Transparency of its practices and procedures is a key factor.

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Pakistan is not yet a subscriber to the IMF's SDDS, but has participated in the less rigorous GDDS since 2003. It has repeatedly expressed its intent to achieve SDDS specifications, but has thus far missed all its target dates for subscription. The IMF's 2004 ROSC finds that Pakistan's statistical institutions all require professionalism of their staff, seek to make their practices and policies transparent, and offer ethical guidelines to their staff. However, the IMF noted that Ministry of Finance and Economic Affairs does not publish information regarding the terms and conditions governing the compilation and publication of fiscal data.

A set of standards that deals with the coverage, periodicity and timeliness of data must also address the quality of statistics.

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Pakistan is not yet a subscriber to the IMF's SDDS, but has participated in the less rigorous GDDS since 2003. It has repeatedly expressed its intent to achieve SDDS specifications, but has thus far missed all its target dates for subscription. In its 2004 Report on Observance of Standards and Codes (ROSC) the IMF notes that data in Pakistan meets quality standards and finds that adequate resources are made available to agencies to carry out their current statistical work. It observes that there is an institutional awareness of the importance of quality in statistical work. Nonetheless, the ROSC warns that greater resources will be required to further develop the statistical programs and especially if Pakistan hopes to achieve SDDS subscription. It will also need more trained staff and greater inter-agency coordination. Methodological shortcomings are identified, particularly with regard to the scope of national accounts data and the system of classification used in preparing and presenting government finance statistics. National accounts and monetary data suffer from shortcomings in their source data. The 2004 ROSC finds that there is, broadly speaking, an adequate legal and institutional framework to support quality of product in all the official statistical agencies, but notes that there are areas where improvements might still be achieved. The FBS would profit from greater autonomy, for example. The findings of the 2004 ROSC on this principle are echoed in the Statistical Issues Annex of the IMF's 2007 Article IV Consultations report, which was published in 2008.