ESO to begin upgraded business surveys
(CNS Business): The Economics and Statistics Office will be starting the annual business surveys next Monday, collecting information to measure the economic performance of the Cayman Islands as a whole and all the individual sectors in 2015. Together, the System of National Accounts (SNA) and the Balance of Payments (BOP) surveys allow officials to gather national data on all entities that produce goods and services in the Cayman Islands. Upgrades to the surveys this year will produce more accurate data, officials said.
This year’s SNA survey will collect more detailed expense data to facilitate the development of a Supply and Use Table (SUT). This will provide a detailed picture of the supply of goods and services that are locally produced and imported as well as their various uses by local businesses and households. Among its many other uses, the SUT data is essential for analysing and forecasting the economic impact of industries.
Meanwhile, the BOP survey includes a few revisions in compliance with changes in classification and methodology, as well as in the International Investment Position (IIP) compilation issued by the International Monetary Fund.
“The changes are expected to produce more accurate statistics, which are essential for assessing the country’s credit-worthiness by rating agencies,” the ESO stated.
All SNA and BOP survey returns are confidential as mandated by the Statistics Law and are exempt from the Freedom of Information (FOI) Law. The returns will be used exclusively for ESO’s statistical purpose. ESO officials said the survey results will be published in aggregate form only, with individual information remaining confidential.
All survey respondents are required to return a completed form by the deadline of 20 May. The ESO team is available to assist businesses in completing the forms. Survey forms and other information can also be found on the website www.eso.ky or contact 949-0940.
CNS: If the ESO collection effort is to have any value, our politicians must start relying on those Statistics, and the media must also take the 20 seconds to check the published stats, and call out politicians that deliberately misstate established figures for political expediency. The fiasco of the so-called “Unemployment Problem” that in the December address was going to have “the highest priority”, our leader cited a rate of >8%, while the ESO office had already published the rate as 5.2% a few months previously in September 2015, and it has now dropped to 4.2% as of February 2016 – almost half of what he was pretending it was at the time of the address two months earlier. If any politician attempts to take personal credit for the reduction from fabled 8% to 4% in the months ahead, they deserve to be called out by the public and by credible journalists that are expected to keep a handle on these numbers.