Thursday, October 2, 2014 - The Government of the Virgin Islands is informing the public that Cabinet has approved the name change of the Development Planning Unit (DPU) to the Central Statistics Office (CSO).
The development planning functions were transferred to the Ministry of Finance’s Macro Fiscal Unit, along with the relevant staff.
According to Acting Permanent Secretary Mr. Brodrick Penn, the CSO has already begun its transition process and is expected to be completed at the end of 2014.
“The CSO now focuses solely on developing processes and procedures for collecting and collating critical statistics. In addition, the office is responsible for identifying and determining relevant revisions to the Statistics Act 2005 to guide its mandate,” he said.
The main outputs of the department include social and economic statistical information such as the consumer price index (CPI), trade, tourism, National Accounts, International Business Corporations (IBC), employment and earnings, vital statistics and housing starts.
Last year, the department received more than 300 requests for data or statistical information. This represents a 104 percent increase in requests for data over the same period in 2012. Of the total requests received, 44 percent were for economic data and related indicators, 43 percent were for social and 13 percent of the requests were for National Accounts information.
Milestones for the department in 2013 included a tourism database initiative, data automation initiative and legislative review.
In reflecting on the accomplishments, Director of the Central Statistics Office, Mr. Raymond Phillips stated, “The data automation initiative represents the most important step towards the CSO realising its mandate of producing and providing timely and accurate statistical information.”
The Central Statistics Office is mandated to monitor, research, and report on the performance of the Virgin Islands’ economy in all important aspects including output, growth, income and employment, interest rates, prices; and short-term and long-term structural changes.
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