Barbadians Can Now Access Central Bank of Barbados’ Data at a Click

Barbadians can now access more quickly a wide range of easy-to-navigate statistical information on the Central Bank of Barbados’ website following the launch of the new CBBWEBSTATS.

“We know the importance and significance of data to decision making at all levels, so we have simplified our online data to make the process easier and faster," Deputy Director, Research and Economic Analysis Department, Sheryl-Peter Kirton, explained. "We believe that researchers, businesspeople, policymakers, financiers and the average citizen will find them easier to use," she further commented.

Visitors to CBBWEBSTATS will find data spanning more than a decade on tourism, trade in goods, interest rates, exchange rates, inflation, international reserves, assets and liabilities, deposit-taking entities such as commercial banks, credit unions, and Part Three companies. Peter-Kirton noted that while the Bank started with the most current data periods, over time it will integrate the available historical data.

CBBWEBSTATS offer new features as well. Users can peruse the Statistics News Page, access the latest data from the Bank’s home page and engage the search engine to find datafiles quickly, and intuitively (by the terms that are familiar to them).  An explanatory blurb on each page will help visitors to the site to better understand and appreciate the information. A Statistics Glossary is also in the pipeline. “We’ve tried to present the CBBWEBSTATS in a simple format, made them more intuitive and easily downloadable in response to requests and suggestions from our stakeholders who rely on our data,” Peter-Kirton stated.

The Bank has also standardised the presentation of information on the balance sheets of deposit-taking institutions - commercial banks, credit unions, and Part Three companies- to help users with their comparative analyses. “Further, we’ve expanded the information on these entities to include all deposit-taking Part Three Companies, rather than include information on the major entities only,” Peter-Kirton elaborated.

The Bank is determined to update CBBWEBSTATS at least bi-monthly, so Peter-Kirton is reminding and encouraging the organisations that provide the stats to submit them on time.

CBBWEBSTATS are available at www.centralbank.org.bb, and users with queries can email statistics@centralbank.org.bb.

“In upgrading our online data to CBBWEBSTATS, we embraced and promoted the concept: data at a click,” Peter-Kirton summarised.

Background on the Bank’s Production of Statistics

One of the Central Bank of Barbados’s (CBB) functions is to provide accurate and timely statistical data to the public. From the 1970s, the Bank published its statistics in the Economic and Financial Statistics (EFS), a hardcopy publication.  In the early 2000s, the Bank started to deliver the EFS in softcopy (PDF) via its official website, and in 2010 it developed the Online Statistics Database, to accommodate the download of variables in Excel and other formats.

We have now transitioned to the CBBWEBSTATS approach in response to feedback from our users,

CBBWEBSTATS is a series of webpages fully integrated into the Bank’s official website, housing data that users can download in Excel format.

CBBWEBSTATS is now the primary way that the Bank will provide accurate and timely statistical data to the public and is essentially the new, more intuitive data dissemination experience that the CBB provides for everyone.