Kathmandu, April 2:

The Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) has conducted a trade survey for the first time.

Distributive Trade Survey-2009 is expected to give updated data that can figure out the real contribution of internal trade to the gross domestic production (GDP).

“The result of the Distributive Trade Survey-2009 will give a benchmark of internal trade,” said Shankar Lal Shrestha, trade statistics section director at

CBS. “However, the result is expected by the end of this fiscal year only.”

The survey took one year to be completed. “We have just completed the field work,” Shrestha said adding that though the department had previously conducted Trade Margin Survey — for the purpose of national accounts that was only enough for the calculation of internal trade’s contribution to the GDP.

According to the Trade Margin Survey conducted six years ago in 2003, internal trade’s contribution to GDP is 13.72 per cent.

“The Distributive Trade Survey will have elaborate figures of wholesale and retail trade and employment generated by both as well as capital formation and financial positioning that were not included in the Trade Margin Survey although it was enough for the calculation of GDP,” Shrestha added.

The Distributive Trade Survey will also provide quality data with more statistics and provide a new benchmark according to the new scenario as it has a coverage frame of 3,000 out of 60,000 identified trade points.

At a time when the business and economic climate in the country is deteriorating, the survey might also be an eye-opener for the government.

The CBS — established in 1959 under the Statistics Act-2015 BS as the central agency for the collection, consolidation, processing, analysis, publication and dissemination of statistics — publishes a National Life Style Survey on an annual basis. The CBS also conducts crop and livestock survey once a year apart from a Consumer Price Index — that it is planning to be published every month — every three months. It conducts periodic surveys like Labour Survey every five years, though it has conducted Labour Survey in ten years this year.