The country’s Government Statistician Douglas Kimi says timely and accurate statistical information is key for effective national development and policymaking as well as for poverty assessment and monitoring processes.
Mr. Kimi highlighted this as he released the country’s rebased Gross Domestic Product (GDP) on Monday 23 March.
Mr. Kimi via a statement issued by the Solomon Islands National Statistic Office (SINSO) during the past years, the National Statistics Office (NSO) has worked closely with the International Monetary Fund- Pacific Financial Technical Assistance Centre (PFTAC) and the internal statistics advisory support to rebase the country’s GDP using the production and expenditure approaches.
“GDP rebasing informs policy formulation and decision making by providing up-to-date economic indicators reflecting a more realistic state of the country’s economic performance.”
He said that the availability of comprehensive, timely and accurate information is a crucial aspect of our socio-economic and environmental life to ensure policymakers utilise the data or information available in their decision making and policy formulation progressions.
“Good statistics are the foundation upon which scarce resources are allocated to fundamental needs such as health, housing, and education.”
He said since 2004, the NSO has been using an old base, saying it is internationally recommended that the base should be renewed every five years but due to some challenges, the office could not rebase.
Mr. Kimi said estimates presented in the new GDP series will be revised in the forthcoming releases as improvement work continues.
