THE National Statistics Office, NSO, is progressing its effort to release the 2021 and 2022 Annual Gross Domestic Product, GDP estimates and economic growth rates early next year, 2024.
With the technical mission this week of the IMF’s Pacific Financial Technical Assistance Centre (PFTAC)’s Real Sector Statistics Adviser, Mr Mathew Powell, support and advice will be provided in the review of the GDP estimates and related economic aggregates, and extended collaborations with partner agencies such as the Central Bank of Solomon Islands, CBSI.
This is Mr Powell’s second time with the NSO, having held a two-day training with the SINSO previously in September 2022.
On Tuesday 7th December, Mr Powell and some senior staff within the Economics Unit of SINSO met with the Central Bank of Solomon Islands to briefly discuss CBSI’s upcoming Quarterly Economic Activity Index, and how it will complement NSO’s Annual GDP releases.
It was proposed during the meeting for CBSI and NSO’s Economic Unit to work together more cooperatively to produce the best output for their respective compilations, where CBSI’s quarterly reports can be used as preliminary estimates or projections based on NSO’s annual GDP releases. This effort aims to not only support improvements in expanding the range of economic indicators but also in supporting the timeliness of the release of key indicators for decision making and policy formulation.
Mr Powell suggested an arrangement between the two organisations to swap information and work more closely together in the future.
“It takes too long to make the final estimates. But making preliminary estimates is good because we can release something for people to work with. It eliminates the waiting and waiting period.
“This will also make big changes to the National Accounts for 2025 and 2026.”
The Economics Unit plans to release the 2021 and 2022 annual GDP in February 2024.
