BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – UNDER the auspices of the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank (ECCB) Governor, Sir K. Dwight Venner, member countries of the Eastern Caribbean Currency Union held a regional launch of the Rebased National Accounts and Revised Consumer Price Index Series on Wednesday, December 15.
The teleconference launch took place at the bank’s various offices in member states including its headquarters in St. Kitts, where a number of prime ministers, finance ministers and senior government officials were in attendance.
In his opening remarks, Sir Dwight said it was a very comprehensive and exhausting exercise meant to bring the statistical aggregates to the levels necessary for making economic policy decisions in a modern and complex environment.
“We would like to bring to the attention of representatives in both the public and private sectors, the fundamental importance of statistics for making sound economic and policy decisions,” He said.
Venner stressed that member states currently live in a society where numeracy continues to be a challenge and resources allocated for gathering, studying and analysing statistics are not given high priority.
“One interesting point of reference is the fact that cricket is the national game in the Caribbean but that very few of us know the averages of our leading batsmen and bowlers. In the United States, by contrast, the followers of sports know the averages of their pitchers or bowlers and the assists of their basketball players,” he said.
In her presentation, Adviser in the Statistics Department, Eastern Caribbean Central Bank, Hazel Corbin said the national accounts statistics are essential in evaluating the performance of economies of member countries over a period of time.
Corbin pointed out that the Caribbean Region Technical Assistance Centre (CARTAC) and the ECCB provided technical assistance, noting that it was the ECCB which developed a programme to harmonise the series.
She said the revised series is as a result of an ECCU statistical project. “Accounts prepared in accordance with the recommendations of the SNA93,” she added.
Commenting on the revision process, the ECCB Statistical Advisor disclosed that the project began in 2005 and the stakeholders had met with those concerned and identified requirements for the rebasing project.
“Each country conducted the Annual National Economic Survey. They also utilised administrative and benchmark data (SUT and HBS) and the rebase revised the GDP Constant/Current Documented Process,” she said.
Explaining the reasons for rebasing of the GDP, Corbin said that in an evolving economy, structural changes in production and consumption will resolve with relative prices changes. She also stated that there would be impact cost variable as a result of technological productivity developments in industries, while new products and services appear and old ones disappear.
Corbin said they had adopted the latest methodological/classification standards, which include new data sources through benchmarking and the revise/reconcile production and expenditure-based methods of GDP.
Identifying the various industries that the new classification of economic activity will fall under, Corbin said that Agriculture, Mining and Quarrying, Manufacturing, Electricity and Water, Hotels and Restaurants, Transport, Storage and Communication, Financial Intermediation, Real Estate, Renting and Business Activities, Public Administration, Defense and Compulsory Social Security.
Reflecting on the highlights of the rebased GDP series, Corbin pointed out that the top five industries measured by the contribution to GVA over the period 2005 to 2009 are: Transport and Communication being 14.4 percent; Real Estate, Renting and Business activities making up 12.7 percent; Wholesale and Retail Trade 11.7 percent; Construction 11.6 percent; and Financial Intermediation at 9.6 percent.
Examining the contributions made to the ECCU GDP in 2009, Corbin said Antigua and Barbuda topped the list with EC$3.384M, equaling 24 percent. She listed Saint Lucia and Grenada as second and third respectively with EC$2.885M, representing 20 percent, and EC$2.056M, million representing 14 percent. St. Vincent and the Grenadines was fourth with a contribution of EC$1.889M, representing 13 percent. St. Kitts and Nevis was fifth with EC$1.817M, representing 13 percent. Dominica was next with EC$1.269M or nine percent, while Anguilla followed with EC$0.803M or six percent, and Montserrat with EC$0.160 million, representing one percent.
Meanwhile, in his presentation, Price Statistics Adviser at CARTAC Paul Armknecht said that with regards to new CPI market baskets, St. Lucia completed the CPI revision in 2008, noting that it is now being competed in most ECCU countries and now starting in Montserrat.
Using an international system, Armknecht spoke of the Classification of Individual Consumption by Purpose (COICOP). He noted that the new CPI market baskets were original market baskets developed using Caribbean COICOP extension beyond the four-digit international standard and were then mapped to COICOP-ICP (seven-digit extension for the International Comparisons Programme).
In summary, Aemknecht said ECCU countries are completing the CPI revision and introducing more relevant inflation measures, noting that CARTAC has provided substantial TA in this process. He further noted that Country CPI’s in the region are comparable, stressing that the ECCU is among the first wave of countries to introduce the improvements presented in the CPI Manual (2004).
“The next step for CARTAC is to develop a regional CPI with the ECCB,” he concluded.
The ECCB, in explaining the Rebased National Accounts, said the GDP is an important element of the system of national accounts, which measures the goods and services produced in a country within a particular time period and is internationally utilised for comparisons among countries.
ECCB further explained that the rebasing of national accounts involve moving the reference year or base year from 1990 to 2006. This charge, the bank added, had become necessary as the economies of the ECCU have undergone structural changes over the years, with the provision of services making up a large share o economic activity.
It also noted that the rebasing of the national accounts now captures a better picture of the total economy.
Among those in attendance were Chairman of the Monetary Council Hon. Nazim Burke, St. Kitts and Nevis Prime Minister Dr. Denzil Douglas, Prime Minister of St. Vincent and the Grenadines Dr. Ralph Gonzales, Governor and Deputy Governors of Anguilla, and the Deputy Governor of Montserrat.
