NSO reform bridges gap

For 8 years the country lacked macro-economic statistics.

This means during this period, the government had no reliable statistics for Gross Domestic Product to measure the country’s economic performance and book-keeping for national accounts.

However, this gap is slowly being bridged under the National Statistical Office (NSO) Reform 2014-2019.

As per NEC’s decision 162 of 2014, NSO for the last 4 years has been under strict reformation to improve processes and statistics as well as building long-term capability to ensure the future of NSO.

The major achievement so far is the production of outstanding GDP reports.

“We have produced GDP estimates for the series; 2007-2013, 2007-2014, March of this year we released 2008-2015 and just before the APEC summit in November, the 2010-2017 series will be released,” said national statistician, Roko Koloma.

This release will be instrumental in assisting the Treasury Department do forecasting and the country’s budget.

“GDP estimates are very important for a country both internally and externally because everyone wants to help but they also want to know the condition of the country,” explained Koloma.

Under the reform, NSO has achieved 4 out of the 5 items instructed by government, including the release of all outstanding GDPs, restructuring the organisation and reforming collection in the provinces.

Strengthening legislation, governance and structures to support the agreed deliverables is currently underway.

Author: 
Carolyn Ure