Aklilu Nigussie -

If the official statistics have been done by an independent official agency which can not be 'adjusted' by a political leader, then I can think of a few legitimate reasons for what you are seeing. One would be that the categories being examined may be too broad. If, say, you look at income in a region, it may be rising, just because a small part of the population is doing well, but many others are doing worse. Perhaps the population in that region could be categorized into smaller geographic regions or categorized by some economic sector such as family-owned farms versus business owned farms or non-farm populations. I do not know those categories well as I am retired from having worked at the US Energy Information Administration as opposed to the US Census Bureau. But you might look to the British Office of National Statistics or Canada's Statistics Canada for categories that would be helpful. As it is, you may have categories with wide variance and skewed populations that may not be represented well by one number. - Also, there may be key variables for which data are not being collected. Again you could look to other agencies, perhaps Statistics Sweden or others, for ideas. - But if your Official Statistics are trustworthy, and complete, and the economic statistics are in useful categories and you still see results you cannot understand, remember that a few anecdotes may not tell you a complete picture. Assuming that is not causing your concern, you could look to other nations' official statistics. I think that I've heard of one in Tanzania perhaps?

Best Wishes -

Jim Knaub

This was my question: When headline GDP and productivity statistics show strong growth while poverty headcount ratios, food insecurity measures, unemployment rates, per capita consumption, and household savings rates remain dire, should macro policy continue to anchor on aggregate output indicators or be reoriented around micro-level welfare metrics?

In macro-policy terms, when national accounts report strong GDP growth (Africa/Ethiopia GDP had been growing for the last 50–100 years), but household surveys reveal persistent poverty, food insecurity, and low consumption, how should policymakers reconcile these conflicting data sources-and should policy be anchored to aggregate output indicators or to micro-level welfare measures?

This can further have an effect on how to build a composite welfare index (e.g., Multidimensional Poverty Index, Genuine Progress Indicator) that blends growth with well-being. The role of distributional national accounts in capturing inequality and median-household outcomes. Policy tools-fiscal transfers, social safety nets, and job-creation programs-that explicitly target the lagging welfare indicators and beyond....

My discussion point was specifically about Africa/Ethiopia. James R Knaub