By Irfan Ahmed ISLAMABAD, June 07 (INP-WealthPK): Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) rebased trade statistics from 1990-91 to 2017-18, expanding the basket of selected commodities to include 1,674 items for export indices and 3,311 items for import indices. The current export and import indexes numbered 632 and 1,124, respectively, reported WealthPK. During the rebasing exercise, items with shares equal to or greater than 0.01% of total imports or exports were selected. Items with shares of less than 0.01% of total value have been dropped. Items with monetary denomination only such as gold and legal tender (securities, banknotes, currencies, coins in circulations) have been excluded. The Governing Council of the PBS issued a policy direction to rebase the national accounts every 10 years in its 5th meeting in 2014, according to the PBS report "Methodology of Trade Indices Base Year 2017-2018." As a result, the base year for the national accounts has been altered from 2005-06 to 2015-16, and the base year for trade statistics has been changed from 1990-91 to 2017-18. The new base data gathering procedure and trade indices computation methodology will increase the quality of trade statistics and expand the breadth and efficacy of policies by delivering efficient data collected in accordance with worldwide best practices. An extended basket of selected items comprising 1,674 has been selected for the construction of export indices and 3,311 items for import indices. The current count was 632 and 1,124 for export and import indices respectively. The inclusion of export processing zones (EPZs) data for the compilation of trade statistics is a new addition. This will help to cover wider aspects of trade statistics. Export indices based on the new base year show a change of 4.95%, 1.11%, and 5.26% in the quantum index as compared to a change of 12.62%, -5.86%, and 5.97% in the base year (1990-91) for 2018-19, 2019-20 and 2021-22, respectively. The unit value index of export shows an increase of 17.26%, 11.64%, and 30.47% for the new base year (2017-18) and an increase of 8.05%, 5.88%, and 7.33% for the base year (1990- 91) for 2018-19, 2019-20 and 2020-21, respectively. As far as the comparison of quantum and unit value indices for import is concerned, the import quantum index shows a change of 2.57%, -0.14%, and 6.59% for the base year 2017-18 for 2018-19, 2019-20, and 2020-21, respectively, while a change of -8.13%, -19.10%, and 42.74% can be seen for the base year 1990-91 during 2018-19, 2019-20 and 2020-21. The unit value index shows an increase of 15.05%, 9.35%, and 29.97% for the new base year (2017-18), and an increase of 6.43%, 2.04%, and 5.90% for the previous base year (1990-91) during 2018-19, 2019-20 and 2020-21. Terms of trade for the year 2018-19, 2019-20, and 2020-21 on the basis of the 2017-18 base period stood at 101.91, 104.05, and 104.45 respectively, whereas the terms of trade for the same period on the basis of 1990-91 base period were 59.21, 61.43 and 62.26, respectively. Keeping in view the importance of trade indices, the PBS has formulated a technical committee to guide and review the methodology of rebasing trade statistics from 1990-91 to 2017-18. The PBS is collaborating and consulting with several stakeholders such as the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) and Pakistan Revenue Automation Ltd (PRAL). Technical assistance has also been sought from the United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD) to address the international standards in rebasing trade statistics. The revised indices based on the 2017-2018 base year are in accordance with the UN recommended Harmonized Commodity Description and Coding Systems 2017.