LAHORE: Economists, bankers and development experts on Tuesday termed a quality and understandable data a must for solid policy making in Pakistan.

They were unanimous that there was a dire need for consolidated sources that are perceived as unbiased, credible, and pro-growth.

“Good, reliable and easy-to-understand data is essential for measuring impact and formulation of evidence-based policies,” said Annabel Gerry, head of Development of UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth, and Development Office (FCDO) in Pakistan, while speaking at a webinar held here to highlight various features of the data portal and the significance of credible and easy-to-access financial data for decision makers.

The event was oragnised by Karandaaz for launch of a state-of-the-art online data portal with aggregated data on financial services and selected socioeconomic indicators for the country.

The portal covers segments such as demographics, national economic data, agriculture finance, financial access, and behaviours of individuals, banking infrastructure and transactions, micro, agri, and SME financing, housing finance, non-bank financial institutions (NBFIs), mobile money, and telecommunications statistics.

Talking about significance of credible data for policymakers, Karandaaz Pakistan Chairperson Dr Shamshad Akhtar termed an easy access to statistics and data critical for Pakistan’s sound policy making and project design.

State Bank of Pakistan Deputy Governor Sima Kamil was of the view that central bank’s reliance, as a regulator of the financial sector of any country, on credible data for making policies that are likely to trigger growth and progress are fundamental.

Published in Dawn, January 20th, 2021