Government will be implementing a warning system, to track the island’s economic performance in the various sectors and to assist enterprises in reorganising their business activities to sustain the current levels of employment.
This was disclosed by officials in the Research and Planning Unit of the Ministry of Economic Affairs recently during an interview.
The programme, which was produced by economists in the department, in conjunction with University of the West Indies’ lecturers Professor Roland Craigwell and Dr Winston Moore, is another tool for economic planners to predict potential downturns in the business cycle.
The model is designed to be used by policymakers on a quarterly basis, as a means of implementing corrective actions during the initial phases of the public and private sectors budgetary and planning stages.
The official explained that the consultants examined a number of indicators to come up with three overall indices that “speak to economic performance at different time periods”.
They identified leading, coincident and lagging indices, as the benchmarks to gauge the movement of the island’s gross domestic product.
Based on the results of the three indices, Government officials, managers and the business sector, are now equipped with additional information, which would allow them to “better plan for their business life cycle and implement the requisite strategies to keep them afloat, during an economic crisis”.
Minister of Economic Affairs, Dr David Estwick is appealing to the private sector to cooperate with Government in this regard. He also urged the public sector to submit information on a continuous basis since cooperation was crucial to the success of the programme. (BGIS)
