NSO in Census of Economic Activities

The National Statistical Office (NSO) is for the first time conducting the Census of Economic Activities (CEA), which is the full measurement of all entrepreneurial units which will provide up to date information and comprehensive data on the activities and structure of the Malawian economy.

NSO spokesperson Kingsley Manda in a questionnaire response said the study has been influenced by a number of critical economic reforms that have been undertaken since 2012 to address Malawi’s macroeconomic and structural imbalances.

Said Manda: “The broad aim of the reforms was to address imbalances, remove market distortions, create a conducive environment for private investment inflows, encourage diversification, provide a robust base for government tax revenues, limit monetisation of budget shortfalls and promote inclusive growth. In order to measure the impact of the changes in the economy, there is need for a set of macro-economic indicators that are produced regularly and on a timely basis and using the most recent internationally accepted methodologies.

“The current set of economic indicators produced by the economic statistics division of the NSO do not fully reflect the current structure of the economy as there have not been any major baseline economic surveys or censuses conducted in recent years, hence the need to conduct the census of economic activities,” he said.

Manda said the objectives of the census are to provide a comprehensive frame work for the establishment for all economic surveys, which will be updated from time to time as well as to measure the full value added Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of the Malawi economy.

The survey also intends to provide data which will enable NSO to compile a full set of national accounts such as input-output tables, gross fixed capital formation, investment and to measure the true extent of investment in Malawi; both foreign and domestic.

The study is also expected to provide a basis for the production and rebasing of different kinds of economic statistics like producer price index, Index of Industrial Production.

Manda said data collection for CEA started in November last year and will end next month.

In a press statement issued by the Malawi Confederation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry (MCCCI) it urges its members to be supportive of the survey as data that will come out will be critical for the industrial decision making and give a clear picture of business performance and will therefore be used as one of the tools in lobbying and advocacy programmes.

Associate professor of economics at Chancellor College, a constituent of University of Malawi Levison Chiwaula said what the NSO is doing is commendable because currently it is difficult to exactly say how much is, for instance, being produced.

“Data collected from the study will be estimates because they may not collect all the information from everybody who is producing, however whatever they obtain will be necessary for the economy because we will be able to know how much we are producing. In our economy there has been a number of changes like serious electricity challenges so the survey will be able to show to what extent that problem affected the industry,” he said.

The study comes at a time some stakeholders have been questioning projections on the GDP and other macroeconomic fundamentals which they say do not reflect the real situation on the ground.

However, Chiwaula argued that most government agencies do produce credible data and was quick to challenge those who doubt the government agencies to conduct their independent research as a comparable measure for discrediting government data.

“It is true that a number of positive projections that are produced by government agencies may sometimes differ with the situation on the ground as people see it differently. Unfortunately, when everybody is saying things are not exactly as expected, we are not even able to produce objective results that are different to what the government is showing. That is the problem on its own that people can just stand up and say this is not realistic and yet they have not done independent surveys to check what the government has produced,” he said.