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AMID
questions raised on the reliability of the government’s
economic data, the National Economic and Development
Authority (Neda) asserted that independence and high
standards are being implemented at the National
Statistics Office (NSO) and the National Statistical
Coordination Board (NSCB).
In a
statement, Neda Acting Director General Augusto Santos
assured the public that the data-collection processes of
the NSO and the NSCB conform to international standards.
“The
NSCB Interagency Committees which approve operational
definitions, data-collection methodologies and
estimation of statistics have members from the different
stakeholders, including the private sector. Mechanisms
on checking data consistency are also in place. Hence,
insinuations on the reliability of data are not
warranted,”
Santos
said.
Santos
also stressed that the high-growth sectors in the
National Income Accounts are also those with higher
employment growth as shown by the results of the Labor
Force Survey.
“While
it can be seen that employment growth is lower in 2007,
the higher employment growth in the preceding year might
have actually supported growth in year 2007,” the acting
Neda chief said.
Santos
added the 25-percent growth in construction in 2007, for
instance, has contributed in the generation of jobs for
the sector, thus, increasing its employment to 6 percent
in the same year.
Further,
the NSO said in a statement that the Family Income and
Expenditures Survey (FIES) data on expenditures and the
personal consumption expenditures (PCE) estimates are
different.
The NSO
explained that the differences lie in the coverage,
concepts, definitions, methodologies and data-related
factors, particularly the underreporting/overreporting
of income/expenditures in the FIES.
Santos
also said the NSO and NSCB have been very transparent
and their web sites, where regular publications are
available to the public, have always explained how the
agency generates national accounts data.
He
stressed that the NSCB also provides the public with the
System of National Accounts Technical Notes and metadata
to guide users in understanding the concepts and
methodologies involved in the estimation of the gross
domestic product (GDP).
Among
those who made recent comments about the government’s
economic data was University of the Philippines
economist and former Neda director general Dr. Felipe
Medalla, who openly questioned the government’s ability
to come up with credible statistics due to lack of
funding and autonomy.
Medalla
said that while the government has announced that its
GDP in 2007 was a 31-year high at 7.3 percent, this is
not exactly accurate.
He said
the NIA was unreliable since it does not corroborate the
results of the FIES. He said that PCE in recent years
have been higher than expected, which contradicts the
2006 FIES results which showed that expenditure of
families increased by 3.6 percent, while income only
increased by 1.7 percent.
Medalla
noted that the average growth rate of the PCE from 2004
to 2006 was the highest in the last 20 years, but the
growth rate of GNI net of taxes or GNP adjusted for
changes in the international terms of trade and taxes,
was the lowest during the last 10 years.
He said
that to become more reliable, the government must
increase its spending for statistics gathering since the
government spent “too little” on this and yet official
government data is considered the backbone of government
planning.
Medalla
also recommended that statistical agencies should be
“left alone” and allowed to act independently so that
data will not be marred. |
