ECCB 2017-2018 Annual Report and Statement of Accounts

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ECCB ANNUAL REPORT 2017/2018

Working Groups discussed the following topics: 1. Strengthening our institutions for growth and sustainability; 2. Building resilience in our financial sector markets; 3. Developing our human resources capacity for growth and sustainability; and 4. Building climate smart resilient infrastructure in the OECS. Refocus Research Agenda to Address Growth Macroeconomic Surveillance Basis for Policy - Research Papers Economists within the Bank prepared and presented several scholarly papers analysing financial sector stability issues. Among these were: a. How Connected Are We? An Analysis of the ECCU Financial System; b. Bank Network Analysis in the ECCU; c. Can the ECCB Better Influence Fiscal Policy in its Member States; d. (Organic) Food for Thought – Exploring the Feasibility of Organic Agriculture for Small Farmers in the ECCU; e. Identification of Systemically Important Financial Institutions in the ECCU; f. Determinants of Commercial Bank Profitability; and g. Identification of Gatekeepers in the ECCU Payments System Network. The Bank was represented at several conferences, both regionally and internationally. Those included the 49 th Annual Monetary Studies Conference, hosted by the Central Bank of Belize in collaboration with Caribbean Centre for Money and Finance (CCMF). Two papers titled: (i) Credit and Economic Growth in the ECCU: A Threshold Approach and (ii) Grenada’s Home- View reports from Working Groups

grown Structural Adjustment Programme (2014- 2016): Reflections and Key Takeaways , were presented at that conference. The latter paper was jointly prepared with the Macro-Policy Unit of Grenada. represented at the Annual Conference of the Allied Social Science Associations in the USA. Participation at Workshops The Bank participated in several workshops during 2017/18. Among these were: • Macroprudential Policy: Implementing Financial Stability Mandate, May 2017 - England; • Developing Financial Health and Stability Indicators (FHSIs) for the Insurance Sector, October 2017 - St Kitts and Nevis, sponsored by CARTAC; • Seminar on Macroprudential and Monetary Policies for Small Open Economies, November 14- 17 Nassau - The Bahamas, sponsored by Center for Latin American Monetary Studies (CEMLA); and • CARTAC/IMF External Sector Statistics training during the period 19 to 23 March 2018 - Saint Lucia. Statistics The Bank continued to focus on the measurement of economic growth in the ECCB member countries; the focus for the national accounts was on compilation and review of the annual GDP estimates, compilation of the GDP projections and training. Two revisions were made to the GDP projections for 2017 to 2019. Consistent with its strategic goal of actively promoting the economic development of our member territories, the Bank participated in: •  • The OECS Tourism Market Intelligence (TMI) In addition, the Bank was