THE PERSPECTIVE OF POLICY
ON DEVELOPING AN INTEGRATED
STATISTICS PROGRAMME IN
SUPPORT OF THE IMPLEMENTATION
OF THE 2008 SNA
February 3-7, 2014
St Lucia
POLICY PERSPECTIVE, JAMAICA

National Development Plan for Jamaica Vision 2030
 Outlines national goals, strategies &
outcomes
 National Outcome #7: A Stable Macro
economy
 Fiscal balance of 0% of GDP
 Debt to GDP ratio of 75%
 Real GDP annual growth rate of 5%
POLICY PERSPECTIVE, JAMAICA
 In
2013 the Government entered into an
extended fund facility with the IMF.
 This required the Government to embark
on an extensive economic reform
programme. Some of the objectives laid
out in the medium term macro-economic
framework were;
 Significantly raising the rate of real
GDP and per capita income growth
POLICY PERSPECTIVE, JAMAICA
 Virtually
eliminating fiscal deficit and
substantially reducing debt burden
 A central government budget consistent
with an overall fiscal balance of 0 per cent
of GDP
 Debt/GDP ratio of no more than 100 per
cent by FY 2015/16. The long run objective
is to reduce the debt ratios of the
government to around 60 per cent of GDP
POLICY PERSPECTIVE, JAMAICA
 Wages
to GDP ratio of 9%
 Monetary policy will focus on maintaining
single digit inflation. Inflation projected to
be at 8% by 2016/17 supported by an
effective monetary policy strategy
DEVELOPMENT OF INTEGRATED
STATISTICS
 In
January 2013 Jamaica participated in
a national planning seminar for the
implementation of the SNA 2008 in
conjunction with UNSD
 Seminar
included participants from the
Bank of Jamaica, the Planning Institute
of Jamaica and the Ministry of Finance
DEVELOPMENT OF INTEGRATED
STATISTICS
The following were some of the needs of
these agencies;
1. More detailed macro economic data with
greater frequency to formulate policy
and assess progress
 For the Central Bank monetary policy is
better assessed using demand side
aggregates
The
bank
therefore
requires estimates of the components
of aggregate demand at a higher
frequency
DEVELOPMENT OF INTEGRATED
STATISTICS
2.
Improvement of the quality and
timeliness of the underlying data
required
for
compiling
the
macroeconomic accounts of Jamaica.

Most targets especially those in the
IMF agreement are benchmarked
against the GDP so the level,
timeliness and frequency are critical
DEVELOPMENT OF INTEGRATED
STATISTICS
3.
Demands for meeting macro-prudential
and
financial stability regulations
require the extension of the national
accounts
to include the integrated
presentation of integrated sequence of
accounts and balance sheets with fromwhom-to-whom perspective.

This requires extension into
institutional accounts as monitoring of
the sectors can inform policies
DEVELOPMENT OF INTEGRATED
STATISTICS
 Taking
into account these needs the
strategy statement for the
implementation of the SNA 2008 outline
the following components to the national
accounts
 The first phase will be completed in 2016
and should cover Milestone 2 of the 2008 .
 No plans in the medium term to include
the financial accounts and balance
sheets due to resource constraints
DEVELOPMENT OF INTEGRATED
STATISTICS
 Compilation
of
quarterly
GDP
by
expenditure
 Institutional Accounts re-introduced on
phased basis starting with government
institutional accounts
 Efforts to ensure the exhaustiveness of
the GDP. Jamaica now in the process of
developing an informal sector study
DEVELOPMENT OF INTEGRATED
STATISTICS
Implementation of the SNA 2008 however
will require improvement in the basic
statistics used in the national accounts
such as
 Development work has started on a
monthly production volume
 Development of trade indices currently
underway
 Conversion of industries to be compliant
with ISIC Rev 4
DEVELOPMENT OF INTEGRATED
STATISTICS
Expansion of PPI from the current Mining and
Manufacturing industries
 Rebasing of CPI is currently in progress
 Increased use of administrative data (service
agreements/ MOUs for formalizing modalities)
 Integration of BPM6 and 2008 SNA-related
surveys
 Improvement in the regulatory and institutional
framework are also critical and Jamaica is
currently in the process of developing a National
Statististics System (NSS)
