Role of the Central Bank of Barbados in the field of statistics on the Barbados economy

It cannot be gainsaid that statistics provides the tools of decision making in every field of society, be it agriculture, medicine, natural or social science. For instance, to achieve the ultimate goal of improving the general welfare of society, economists and other social scientists strive to understand how resources are allocated and distributed in a way that ensures a measure of equity. This requires knowledge and understanding of a wide range of information upon which most decisions of how resources are allocated and distributed are made. Like most central banks, the Central Bank of Barbados has regulatory function in respect of the financial system and a legislative mandate to undertake continuous economic research. To this end, the Central Bank of Barbados has assembled and maintains, on a current basis, economic data with a primary focus on financial, fiscal, foreign trade and real sector variables. The Barbados Statistical Service has the legal authority to collect statistics in Barbados but because of inadequate human and financial resources it has been unable to provide certain types of data and has even stopped disseminating some types of socio-economic data. The Bank therefore finds itself filling the breach by getting involved in the dissemination of not only banking and financial data but also non-financial and other socio-economic information. The Bank is also a major user of statistics to the extent that it conducts research on all facets of the economy. In that regard, the Bank is constantly looking for avenues to improve data availability, coverage and quality. This article outlines the Bank’s role in collecting, processing and disseminating socio-economic information in Barbados. The paper also touches on the main challenges the Bank faces and the procedures to deal with these challenges. NOTE: Also presented to 52nd session of the International Statistical Institute in Helsinki, Finland from August 9-18, 1999.