Some Issues in the National Income Accounts of Pakistan (Rebasing, Quarterly and Provincial Accounts and Growth Accounting)

This dissertation takes on some important issues related with national accounts of Pakistan including (a) re-estimation of past series of national accounts (prior to the year 1999-00) to make it consistent with the new official series for years 1999-00 onward at new base year prices; (b) quarterisation of annual series of national accounts to remove one of the major stumbling block in research by making available high frequency data, (c) estimation of provincial accounts with new base year prices, and (d) estimation the contribution of total factor productivity (TFP) to economic growth with the new series of gross domestic product and its sub-sectors. Thus by embarking upon the above mentioned issues, the dissertation contributes to the economic literature in the following respects: • It provides a new set of national accounts at 1999-00 prices as well as at current prices for a period from 1970-71 to date consistent with the new official estimates for recent years. • It gives quarterly data of GDP and all its sectors/sub-sectors both at constant prices of 1999-00 and at current prices.1 A by-product of this exercise is quarterly GDP deflator (with 1999-00=100) which was earlier not available in Pakistan. • It presents estimates of provincial GDP and all its sectors/sub-sectors covering all the provinces in a consistent framework.2 • It provides series of gross fixed capital formation and capital stock estimated at disaggregated level and at prices of 1999-00. • It estimates contribution of TFP, capital and labour to the growth of GDP and its sectors/sub-sectors (growth rates of new series at 1999-00 prices).