KARACHI, Jan 12: A quarterly report on Gross Domestic Product (GDP) will be compiled from next fiscal by the Federal Bureau of Statistics (FBS) and would be available for policy-makers and the private sector to take decisions on updated economic data in a rapidly changing environment.

This was revealed at a one-day workshop on “FBS’s statistical activities” inaugurated by State Bank Governor Dr. Ishrat Husain, who in his speech, stressed need for the FBS to introduce new products and services to meet the emerging demand from policy and decision makers. The statistical activities should be demand-driven and the FBS would discard products and services no longer required, he added.

Appreciating the FBS’s quality of data, its reliability and coverage, the SBP governor advised the FBS to update its stocks of continuing flow of information, further minimize time lag between compilation and dissemination of data and optimize the use of human resources, wherever possible.

The FBS is being re-organized and restructured and the government has decided to turn it into an autonomous authority.

FBS director-general Mohammad Noor Larik told Dawn that work on quarterly GDP report was afoot but it would be possible to produce regular reports from fiscal 2003.

It may be added that the government has also decided to publish an analytical mid-year review of current budget implementation not later than end-February 2002.

In collaboration with the State Bank, the FBS has launched a country-wide contact and interaction with end-users to improve the quality and range of its products and services.

Workshops for interaction with end-users will also be organized in Islamabad, Lahore, Peshawar and Quetta.