ISLAMABAD: The PTI government on Thursday approved the re-basement of national accounts, as a result of which the GDP growth rate for the previous financial year 2020-21 increased to 5.57 per cent from the provisional 3.94 per cent.
Although the exercise has improved the total debt and liabilities as a percentage of GDP ratio to 14 per cent, the tax to GDP ratio has declined. With the approval of the re-base of national accounts from 2005-6 to 2015-16, Pakistan's social sector spending on education and health as a percentage of GDP deteriorated, so Islamabad was asked to persuade the international community to increase compliance. Have to work hard. spending on neglected social sector
The country's investment and savings as a percentage of GDP also declined. However, the government preferred to re-base national accounts data and update the full range of macroeconomic data without obtaining approval from the Governing Council of the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS).
The revival of the economy will please both the PTI-led government and the PML-N in terms of GDP growth figures during their tenure. On a re-basing of the economy, the GDP growth figure increased from 5.78 per cent to 6.1 per cent in 2017-18 under the PML-N-led regime.
Under the PTI-led regime, the GDP growth figure rose to 5.3 per cent in 2020-21 from 3.94 per cent based on the base year 2005-06, but to 5.57 per cent in 2015 as the base year changes - 16.
The re-basement of the national economy increased the size of the economy from Rs 48 trillion to Rs 55.5 trillion from 2005-6 to 2015-16. The size of the economy in dollars increased from $298 billion to $347 billion in 2020-21. Per capita income in dollar terms increased by $1,666. However, the size of the economy under the PTI-led regime was still less than the PMLN-led regime, when it stood at $357 billion in 2017-18.
Now with the re-base done after 10 years, the debt to GDP ratio has improved significantly as the total debt and liabilities were 100.3 per cent of GDP based on the base year 2005-06, but now it is 14 per cent. declined to 86.2 percent. In 2020-21. The tax ratio to GDP decreased from 9.6 percent to 8.6 percent of GDP.
Education spending as a percentage of GDP fell from less than 2 percent and health spending from 1 to 0.5 percent of GDP. The revised share in GDP for agriculture, industrial and services sector in 2020-21 is 24 per cent, 19.5 per cent and 56.6 per cent, as against 23 per cent, 20.9 per cent and 56 per cent for the base year 2015-16.
The current account deficit and the budget deficit will also see an improvement as the overall size of the economy has increased in both dollar and rupee terms. The re-base of the economy replaced the base year after 10 years from the financial year 2005-6 to 2015-16. The Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) conducted surveys of various regions with the aim of capturing economic activity and the World Bank (WB) also validated the practice.
“Yes, we conducted over 46 surveys to capture the actual economic activity as the private sector education survey was conducted separately, which showed an improvement of around 50 per cent. We also conducted a separate survey related to private TV channels and cable/internet services,” Chief Statistician Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) Dr Naeem Ul Zafar contacted him for comment on Thursday.
However, PBS could not count livestock in this re-basing exercise. The government also decided to include Petroleum Development Levy (PDL) as part of indirect taxes in the new re-basing.
When asked why the GDP growth for the last financial year 2020-21 rose to 5.3 per cent from 3.94 per cent on a 2005-06 basis, official sources said large-scale manufacturing grew by over 15 per cent. and wheat production increased by 27.3 percent. million tons to 27.5 percent, so its production increased by 0.2 million.
The power sector growth turned negative as per plus growth from a tentative date, so all these sectors contributed to achieving GDP growth rate of 5.3 per cent for 2020-21. When it is finalized in May 2021-22, there may be a slight change in GDP growth. PBS completed the re-base exercise for 2021-22 based on 60 to 70 percent of the available data.
The size of the economy now stands at $347 billion for the last fiscal year 2020-21, up from an earlier provisional estimate of $298 billion. The national accounts were re-base in 1980-81, again in 2000 and 2005-6 and now in 2015-16. The exercise done in 2005-6 came into force in 2007-8. Now the base year of 2015-16 has been implemented in 2021-22.