Charlestown, Nevis
April 04, 2008
Director of statistics in the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank (ECCB) Ms. Laurel Bain in her presentation at a Statistics Symposium organized by the Department of Statistics and Economic Planning on Nevis, hailed the Symposium a long but productive process. Ms. Bain made the comment on April 1, 2008, while she gave a comprehensive analysis to establish progress made about the importance of statistics across the region.
She said over a long period, efforts were made to improve statistics in the region, with numerous reports made and recommendations put forward but implementations were lagged. Notwithstanding, renewed efforts were made to strengthened statistics as the monetary council of the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank (ECCB) deliberated in 2007, for renewed efforts to be made to strengthen statistics, in light of the challenges.
“The Monetary Council agreed that a strategic approach to policy making was a prerequisite for sustainable growth and development in the Eastern Caribbean Currency Union (ECCU) member countries. [Therefore] The monetary council recommended a number of measures to enhance the policy making process in the ECCU, which included the strengthening of the statistics offices and enhanced the statistical systems for data gathering, processing and dissemination.” Ms. Bain said.