NBS Set to Rebase GDP, CPI in November

The Statistician-General and Chief Executive of the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), Mr. Semiu Adeniran, announced that the bureau has completed plans to rebase the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and Consumer Price Index (CPI) in November this year.

Speaking during a stakeholders’ engagement in Abuja, yesterday, the NBS boss assured Nigerians and users of data that the exercise would not diminish the accuracy of current estimates, pointing out that it would be all about the methodology being adopted for the calculations.

He emphasised that the engagement was part of a broader strategy to ensure that the methodologies employed in the exercise would be tailored to Nigeria’s unique context.Adeniran said, “We have seen a lot of activities going on in the digital space. The essence of rebasing is to be able to capture that new trend in the way and manner in which we transact in Nigeria.

“Rebasing would also allow us to capture enough data for new sectors or new ministries established by this government.”He stressed that the exercise became necessary, following the outcome of its Living Survey.“The timeline for the rebasing, we are looking at the second week of November this year, all things being equal, so that government can be able to use it in its budget planning,” he added as Nigeria last rebased its economy in 2014.

Shedding more light on the move to rebase the two leading economic indicators, the Head, Prices Statistics Division,Dr. Ayo Anthony, who spoke on Arise News Channel, yesterday, said: “When you talk of rebasing of the CPI or GDP, that does not mean the bureau’s figures are not reflecting true reality.“Specifically, CPI rebasing is all about bringing the price reference period and the weight reference period closer to reality, closer to the current period.

“Now, in the process of doing this, you are comparing prices of items, for example, presently, with more recent period.“But before now, our price reference period was 2009. And ideally, rebasing ought to be done five years.“However, because of some constraints, the bureau has not been able to carry out this.Now, rebasing is a very huge project. It involves collecting data of household expenditure across all the 37 States of the federation.”

“Not only that, after that is conducted, we need to conduct another survey of what we call rare items.Rare items, which we call durable goods, like cars, and refrigerators. You know, all these items I mentioned now, are not items that are being bought regularly.“And the people in the lower strata don’t always buy these. So, they should be part of the items in our CPI baskets.”