KARACHI: State Bank of Pakistan and Institute of Business Administration (IBA) teamed up for the Consumer Confidence Survey (CCS) as part of Centre for Survey Research (CSR) jointly established to collect data on households’ views about various economic propositions.
In this regard a ceremony was held to sign the agreement which was oversaw by State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) Ashraf Mahmood Wathra and Institute of Business Administration (IBA) Director Dr Ishrat Hussain.
It is to be recalled that in January 2012, the SBP inaugurated the Centre for Survey Research (CSR) in collaboration with the IBA which was followed by the launch a web portal in Jan 2014.
Shedding light on the importance of the project for SBP and its stakeholders, the Governor stated that consumer confidence and inflation expectations reflect the confidence of households in the economy which in turn reflect the state of the economy. ”The expectations regarding inflation, interest rate, stock prices, and employment are important for policy formulation, which explains why many developed and developing countries are using consumer surveys for policymaking and research purposes,” he added.
Referring to the flagship Annual, Quarterly Reports and Monetary Policy Statements, the Governor said “Increased attention to these concept developed therein reflect the maturing of the consumer confidence project.” The Governor also acknowledged the value addition to the understanding of inflation in the country by the development of Administered Price Index (API) by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS).
The Governor also spoke on the choice of IBA as partner in this project and said that SBP wanted to partner with a reputable institution to ensure and address any possible Central Bank bias. “I am glad that we were able to collaborate with a reputable public institution like the IBA in the accomplishment of this task,” said the Governor adding, “Today we will further solemnise this partnership.”
Dr Ishrat Hussain, Director IBA, in his address said that the renewed partnership between SBP and IBA showed that IBA’s team was able to deliver the project up to the standard required by the Central Bank. He said that in a country like Pakistan project completion is a novelty because there is general lack of know-how about successful ‘implementation’ of projects. He said that this project is also a good example of an educational institution meeting the demands of a policy-making organisation, which is too often busy in operational tasks. The project is also a good example of a bilateral institution building.
