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The Importance Of Accurate Data

Despite claims that the Philippine economy is improving, credible allegations saying the opposite abound. An example, is Former Economic Planning Secretary and UP professor Cielito Habito’s pronouncement that more people are actually getting hungry.


In today’s newspaper, a government consultant mentioned that the administration is dependent upon secondary data in figuring out the true state of the economy. If that is the case, it is possible that the country’s GNP/GDP shows an increase, simply because more transactions are now being reported by the banks.

"Francois Renard, an EU expert in trade statistics gathering, told the BusinessMirror that his observations show the Philippines is having an ā€œundercoverageā€ of transactions and contributions of the different key service industries.

ā€œWhat you have now is just a rough estimation,ā€ Renard said at the sidelines of the EU-funded training on Manual Statistics of International Trade in Services in
Makati."



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