ECCB 2022-2023 Annual Report and Financial Statements

Eastern Caribbean Central Bank Annual Report 2022 - 2023

engagements to discuss and address existing data gaps and coverage issues were conducted. In April 2022, the Bank coordinated a regional workshop on the compilation of the ESS with the objective of providing guidance to the ECCU compilers on the review and validation of the ESS survey data. The Bank provided guidance on estimation techniques given the low response rates to surveys, which have deteriorated since the COVID-19 pandemic. Development work on the back casting of the ESS for the period 2000-2013 commenced during the latter part of the financial year 2022/2023 with an expected dissemination timeline of August 2023. The Bank disseminated revised Balance of Payments, International Investment Position Statistics and Trade in Services Statistics, with projections up to 2024, in March 2023. National Accounts Developments During the year, the Bank focused on the revision of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) forecasts for 2022 to 2024. The Bank collaborated with staff in the ECCU member countries to host consultative discussions on the GDP forecasts in September 2022 (Montserrat and Saint Lucia) and January 2023 (all member countries). The discussions aimed at improving the overall quality of the forecasts. Work began with IMF and CARTAC Advisers to implement a Now-Casting framework in the ECCU. This development work will produce a robust and effective system for the estimation and forecast of the GDP. During the consultative meetings with the ECCU Directors of Statistics in May and October 2022, member countries were encouraged to release their re-referenced GDP Series with base year 2018 on completion of the same.

(BOS) in July 2022 and February 2023. The Bank disseminated the BOS infographic via social media and emailed it to major stakeholders. The Bank also prepared country-specific versions of the BOS results that compared the member countries’ results to the ECCU results. This information was widely used in the Bank’s Country Outreach Missions to the member countries in 2022-2023. One of the Bank’s major accomplishments for 2022 was the completion of the project to transfer the economic statistics to the ECCB SAS database from its legacy system AREMOS. The data used for the Economic and Financial Reviews for June 2022 and for the year 2022, were completed using the data retrieved from the SAS software. As part of its data dissemination and awareness campaign, the Bank also released its monthly infographic on comparative fuel prices in the ECCU. The ECCB collaborated with regional partners, particularly the OECS Commission, CARTAC and Statistics Canada through the Project for the Regional Advancement of Statistics in the Caribbean (PRASC) on various statistics-related initiatives and meetings during the financial year. Consequently, staff participated in a number of virtual capacity building sessions during the year. Capital Market Development In November 2022, the Regional Government Securities Market (RGSM) attained a milestone - the attainment and celebration of its 20 th anniversary. The highlight of the anniversary was a panel discussion held under the theme: Grow Your Wealth, Protect Your Financial Health Through Government Securities on the RGSM . The panel discussion featured stakeholders from all spectrums of the market including a broker, debt manager, institutional and retail investor, a representative from the Eastern Caribbean Securities

To supplement macro-economic analysis, the Bank conducted the bi-annual Business Outlook Survey

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