## 1. Priority Recommendations ## Source details **Canonical URL:** [1. Priority Recommendations](https://www.imf.org/-/media/files/publications/cr/2022/english/1slbea2022003.pdf) ## Other formats - [Markdown version](/-/media/files/publications/cr/2022/english/1slbea2022003.pdf.md) - [Structured JSON version](/-/media/files/publications/cr/2022/english/1slbea2022003.pdf.json) --- ### Mission overview and key outcomes - A virtual technical assistance (TA) mission was conducted by the IMF Statistics Department (STA) in the Solomon Islands (SI) during April 18–29, 2022. - Main objective: assist SI authorities in strengthening compilation and dissemination of government finance statistics (GFS) and public sector debt statistics (PSDS) for decision making and Fund surveillance. - Technical focus: inconsistencies in stocks and flows in GFS and PSDS and on recording of grants. - Mission conducted under the Data for Decisions (D4D) trust fund. - Mission activities: - Assessed progress against previous recommendations. - Investigated stocks/flows inconsistency and verified GFS compilation with various source data. - Improved quality of existing GFS compilation process and outcome, focusing on revision policy. - Reviewed Results Based Management (RBM) framework and target completion dates. - Progress noted: - Around half of forty recommendations from previous missions between 2019 and 2022 were partially to fully implemented (Appendix I). - COVID-19 pandemic interrupted and delayed many development projects in the recommendations. - Authorities made significant progress particularly in using appropriate statistical techniques for compilation and dissemination outcome. - Quarterly budgetary central government (BCG) GFS data have been compiled and disseminated to the public; broader coverage of GFS and public sector PSDS was not the authorities’ priority given limited resources. - NSO has strengthened resources for GFS compilation but COVID slowed progress. - CBSI has done well with high frequency BCG; mission encouraged NSO to support GFS compilation for other sub-sectors (EBUs, provincial and local governments, public corporations) on an annual frequency to achieve general government GFS and beyond. ### Identified data inconsistencies and interim treatments - Financing data from monetary and financial statistics (MFS) and the registrar are not consistent. - MFS coverage is broader than CG, BCG, and EBUs; using MFS financing information may be useful for central government. - To solve GFS–BOP consistency issues, adjustments required BOP source data. - Grants in-kind could be added to GFS grant revenues and expenditures given current information. - Donor direct transfers to EBUs and SOEs may appear as deposits with depository corporations in MFS and as grants revenue or deferred capital revenue of EBUs and PCs. - Limited information about external grants; imputation of cash component has been carried out as a temporary stop-gap measure. - CBSI upgrading data-dissemination website; new webpage to be launched by June 2022 and will include FY2018 public sector debt data prepared by PSDS TA mission earlier this year. - Mission provided guidelines for fiscal statistics release in various dissemination standards and discussed use of revision policy and release calendar. ### Institutional coordination - Mission encouraged establishment of a Government Finance taskforce or committee to define responsibilities and accountability among key institutions responsible for GFS compilation. - Mission provided example compilation task division and terms of reference for such a taskforce/committee. ### Priority recommendations (Table 1) - Target Date: June 2022 - Priority Recommendation: Publish the PSDS for public sector on the IMF and World Bank QPSD database in parallel with its own website. - Responsible Institution: CBSI - Target Date: December 2022 - Priority Recommendation: Prepare the metadata, release calendar and revision policy for the GFS and PSDS on the website. - Responsible Institution: CBSI - Target Date: June 2023 - Priority Recommendation: Coordinate and transfer the knowledge of GFS compilation particularly on the EBUs, provincial and local governments, and public corporation. - Responsible Institutions: CBSI and NSO ### Detailed technical assessment and recommended actions ### A. Data Sources for GFS Compilation - Available data sources: - Primary: 1) BCG general ledger (AX), 2) government bills and bonds issued by the Currency and Banking unit (Registrar) in CBSI, and 3) BOP external donor’s survey. - Secondary: 1) stocks of financial assets and liabilities of financial corporations from the MFS, 2) audited financial statements of government agencies and state own enterprises on the Office of the Auditor General’s website, and 3) BOP external grants. - Using MFS of financial sub-sectors for CG financing (recommended by 2019 mission) reduced discrepancies markedly, though improvement remains possible. - BCG financing calculated from changes in stocks of CG assets and liabilities with financial corporations versus general ledger (AX) where only partial financing represented. - Coverage note: central government deposits with financial corporations include deposit accounts of government agencies, particularly EBUs — e.g., SI National University had deposits of 112.5 Mn. SI$ as of 2016; sum of deposits of SI Visitor Bureau, Civil Aviation Authority of Solomon Islands and Telecommunications Commission SI altogether were less than 10 Mn.SI$. - Government liabilities with financial corporations are not exhaustive: government also has debt liabilities issued to public non-financial corporations. CBSI’s published government debt securities registered with CBSI registrar are larger than those held by financial corporations; CBSI registrar issuance information is a more superior source. - Thirty percent of total deposit of central government agencies are with the other depository corporation and has been increasing over time as opposed to the deposits with the central bank. - Recommended actions: - Use direct information of government debt issuance and treasury deposit accounts with CBSI and other depositor corporations (if any) for compiling BCG financing to reduce inconsistency between GFS and PSDS. - Request names of government agencies/funds that have deposits from depository corporations to update the institutional table; use this as basis for collecting data for other sub-sectors besides BCG. ### B. Grants Adjustment and other Compilation Issues - Two types of grants needing attention: external grants revenues and subvention and grants (subvention and grants account for 15 percent of government expense). - External grants issues: - Donors contribute in-cash or in-kind. Grants in-kind not recorded in government cash accounts. - Cash grants can be sent directly to government agencies and SOEs outside the budget. - Example: SI Electricity Authority financial statement showed steady flow of grants since 2013 until 2019; other SOEs and SI National University have accumulative stocks of deferred grants recorded in liabilities but did not record grants from external donors since 2015. - BOP records official grants to public sector as funding to government (BOP has only two recipient sectors: general government and private). - Current imputation of discrepancies between BOP and GFS revenue grants: - Distribute discrepancies proportionately between foreign government (90 percent) and international agencies (10 percent) with current and capital ratio of 60:40 and 0:100, respectively (represents average distribution from past grants’ revenue pattern). - Mission recommendation: better to use details of grant primary data from BOP external donor survey rather than aggregated-level imputation. - Interim/improved imputation suggested: - Impute from higher detail of secondary data available in BOP compilation. - Add non-cash component directly to GFS grants received. - The technical assistance component perceived to come majority from international organizations will be imputed to 1311; cash component calculated with same formula as paragraph 15. - Measure is temporary until GFS compilers receive survey information. - Classification of deposits in foreign currency with domestic financial corporations: - These are financial assets with domestic debtors (residency focus), not external — should be reclassified to domestic sector, reducing external financing to zero and increasing domestic financing (results shown in table A2.4). - Recommended Actions: - Use information from BOP external donor survey and validate with AX and grants received by SIEA; evaluate discrepancies between sources and support classification of donors. - While waiting for complete information, update imputation calculation leveraging detail in BOP compilation; add in-kind directly to grants and calculate only cash component then distribute as previously. - Update new GFS series from adjustment from FY2015 with less discrepancies to the GFSY database at the Fund. ### C. Data Dissemination and Revision Policy - Current dissemination: - CBSI disseminates timely quarterly budgetary central government fiscal statistics via a quarterly review with comprehensive macroeconomic statistics and accompanying tables. - BCG operations (revenue and expenditure) and debt classified by instruments and holders disseminated quarterly with one quarter lag. - Mission suggested release calendar and timing; some items can be released later depending on data and resources at CBSI discretion. - Table 2 — Authorities’ Current and Planned Dissemination Periodicity and Timeliness (items preserved as in source): - 1 General government operations (Sep23) A 3Q September - 2 Budgetary central government operations Jun22) Q 1Q Quarter-end - 3 Budgetary central government operation (including external grants) (Jun22) Q 4.5M Mid quarter - 4 Budgetary central government debt (Jun22) Q 1Q Quarter-end - 5 Central government debt (aggregate) (Mar23) Q 2Q Two quarter-end - 6 Public sector gross debt (aggregate) (Released on an annual basis) (Aug23) Q EVERY 2Y August - Mission encouraged dissemination within timeframe set in the e-GDDS or better; where required, estimation must be made for missing data. - Suggested communication tools: revision policy, metadata, advanced release calendar, and remarks (preliminary, revised, final) to identify quality of publications. - Table 3 — The Periodicity and Timeliness Requirements for Various Dissemination Standards (preserved exactly): - SDDS Plus - General government operations Q 12M - General government gross debt Q 4M - Central government operations M 1M - Central government debt Q 1Q - Central government debt guarantee Q 1Q - SDDS - General government operations A 2Q - Central government operations M 1M - Central government debt Q 1Q - e-GDDS - General government operations A 3Q - Central government operations Q 1Q - Central government gross debt Q 2Q - Recommended Actions: - Prepare metadata, release calendar and revision policy for the GFS and PSDS on the website. - Research and estimate statistics available with significant lags to disseminate within e-GDDS timeframes, accompanied by revision policy, metadata, and advanced release calendar for better communication with users. ### D. Human Resources, Capacity, and Business Process - (Section heading present in source; detailed content continues beyond supplied excerpt.) ### Inter-agency arrangements and scope - Two staffs at CBSI are responsible for fiscal statistics compilation and analysis; limited resources and the pandemic caused CBSI to prioritize quality of budgetary central government (BCG) GFS compilation and PSDS dissemination. - The NSO has long planned to compile GFS and offered to support compilation for other public sub-sectors (EBUs, provincial and local governments, public corporations). - An inter-agency GFS taskforce was welcomed and fully supported by the mission to increase resources and speed up development of GFS coverage extension. - The mission left a draft suggested scope of responsibility between CBSI and NSO and encouraged authorities to discuss and agree on the taskforce setup. ### Capacity building, coordination, and training - CBSI and NSO planned coordination and training since 2019 but this was interrupted by the pandemic. - The mission provided a mini-GFS refresher to the NSO compiler who will support GFS compilation for EBUs, provincial and local governments, and public corporations. - The mission suggested the NSO, with one available resource, complement annual-frequency GFS compilation for other sub-sectors while CBSI maintains high-frequency BCG compilation — to achieve general government GFS in a timely manner for policy analysis and surveillance. - CBSI has a regular resource rotation plan for GFS compilers every two years. ### Business process documentation and continuity - CBSI will continue to lead GFS compilation and move toward higher-quality statistics dissemination; compilation process guidelines and dissemination processes should be prepared and shared among compilers. - Close coordination between CBSI, NSO and other data providers is necessary. - Business process documentation and related files will be useful to ensure continuity of statistical compilation in case of staff changes. ### Recommended actions (from the mission) - Coordinate and transfer the knowledge of GFS compilation particularly on the EBUs, provincial and local governments, and public corporations. - Discuss and agree with a clear division of responsibility and accountability for GFS compilation. - Establish a GFS taskforce and/or committee to improve coordination among compilers and data providers. ### Officials met during the mission - John Rohi — Manager/ Economics, Research and Statistics Department, CBSI - Jack Boe — GFS Senior Analyst/CBSI - Jack Suimae — Research Analyst/CBSI - Rodney Taraha — Ministry of Finance and Treasury - Felix Tapi Magu — Ministry of Finance and Treasury - Andrew Kakata — National Statistical Office - Moffat Sanau — National Statistical Office ### Key fiscal statistics and compilation outcomes (selected figures from 2015–2020) - Revenue (C1): 2015: 4375.33; 2016: 4197.85; 2017: 4543.98; 2018: 4691.91; 2019: 4474; 2020: 4218 - Taxes (C11): 2015: 2664.44; 2016: 2636.78; 2017: 2963.01; 2018: 3279.56; 2019: 2942.20; 2020: 2656.07 - Grants (C13): 2015: 1175.48; 2016: 1118.40; 2017: 1065.90; 2018: 940.95; 2019: 1054.53; 2020: 1114.72 - Expense (C2): 2015: 3277.93; 2016: 3375.99; 2017: 3399.40; 2018: 3509.96; 2019: 3723.67; 2020: 3791.45 - Compensation of employees (C21): 2015: 1066.53; 2016: 1151.07; 2017: 1248.31; 2018: 1322.08; 2019: 1392.75; 2020: 1468.59 - Use of goods and services (C22): 2015: 1615.22; 2016: 2012.32; 2017: 1980.94; 2018: 1856.69; 2019: 2066.72; 2020: 1901.51 - Net operating balance (NOB = C1 - C2): 2015: 1097.40; 2016: 821.87; 2017: 1144.57; 2018: 1181.95; 2019: 750.07; 2020: 426.32 - Net/gross investment in nonfinancial assets (C31): 2015: 794.83; 2016: 1167.84; 2017: 1249.93; 2018: 990.85; 2019: 951.77; 2020: 733.91 - Net lending (+) / Net borrowing (-) (NLB): 2015: 302.56; 2016: -345.98; 2017: -105.36; 2018: 191.10; 2019: -201.70; 2020: -307.59 - Net acquisition of financial assets (C32) after adjustment: 2015: -154.71; 2016: -292.81; 2017: 175.37; 2018: 61.23; 2019: -148.43; 2020: 62.35 - Net incurrence of liabilities (C33) after adjustment: 2015: -175.35; 2016: 31.89; 2017: 216.14; 2018: 65.11; 2019: 59.52; 2020: 375.17 - Domestic financing (after adjustment): 2015: -287.40; 2016: -296.97; 2017: 326.20; 2018: 113.02; 2019: -120.46; 2020: 240.26 - External financing (after adjustment): 2015: -42.66; 2016: 36.05; 2017: 65.31; 2018: 13.32; 2019: 31.55; 2020: 197.26 - Gross Domestic Production (GDP, current market price): 2015: 10,345; 2016: 10,957; 2017: 11,703; 2018: 12,482; 2019: 12,772; 2020: 12,515 - Statistical Discrepancy as % of GDP: 2015: -2.73%; 2016: 0.19%; 2017: 0.55%; 2018: -1.56%; 2019: -0.05%; 2020: -0.04% *Source: 1slbea2022003 - 1. Priority Recommendations (IMF STA TA mission report, April 18–29, 2022).* ### 1. Priority Recommendations ______________________________________________________________________ 6 ### 1. Priority Recommendations ### Mission overview and key outcomes - A virtual technical assistance (TA) mission was conducted by the IMF Statistics Department (STA) in the Solomon Islands (SI) during April 18–29, 2022. - Main objective: assist SI authorities in strengthening compilation and dissemination of government finance statistics (GFS) and public sector debt statistics (PSDS) for decision making and Fund surveillance. - Technical focus: inconsistencies in stocks and flows in GFS and PSDS and on recording of grants. - Mission conducted under the Data for Decisions (D4D) trust fund. - Mission activities: - Assessed progress against previous recommendations. - Investigated stocks/flows inconsistency and verified GFS compilation with various source data. - Improved quality of existing GFS compilation process and outcome, focusing on revision policy. - Reviewed Results Based Management (RBM) framework and target completion dates. - Progress noted: - Around half of forty recommendations from previous missions between 2019 and 2022 were partially to fully implemented (Appendix I). - COVID-19 pandemic interrupted and delayed many development projects in the recommendations. - Authorities made significant progress particularly in using appropriate statistical techniques for compilation and dissemination outcome. - Quarterly budgetary central government (BCG) GFS data have been compiled and disseminated to the public; broader coverage of GFS and public sector PSDS was not the authorities’ priority given limited resources. - NSO has strengthened resources for GFS compilation but COVID slowed progress. - CBSI has done well with high frequency BCG; mission encouraged NSO to support GFS compilation for other sub-sectors (EBUs, provincial and local governments, public corporations) on an annual frequency to achieve general government GFS and beyond. ### Identified data inconsistencies and interim treatments - Financing data from monetary and financial statistics (MFS) and the registrar are not consistent. - MFS coverage is broader than CG, BCG, and EBUs; using MFS financing information may be useful for central government. - To solve GFS–BOP consistency issues, adjustments required BOP source data. - Grants in-kind could be added to GFS grant revenues and expenditures given current information. - Donor direct transfers to EBUs and SOEs may appear as deposits with depository corporations in MFS and as grants revenue or deferred capital revenue of EBUs and PCs. - Limited information about external grants; imputation of cash component has been carried out as a temporary stop-gap measure. - CBSI upgrading data-dissemination website; new webpage to be launched by June 2022 and will include FY2018 public sector debt data prepared by PSDS TA mission earlier this year. - Mission provided guidelines for fiscal statistics release in various dissemination standards and discussed use of revision policy and release calendar. ### Institutional coordination - Mission encouraged establishment of a Government Finance taskforce or committee to define responsibilities and accountability among key institutions responsible for GFS compilation. - Mission provided example compilation task division and terms of reference for such a taskforce/committee. ### Priority recommendations (Table 1) - Target Date: June 2022 - Priority Recommendation: Publish the PSDS for public sector on the IMF and World Bank QPSD database in parallel with its own website. - Responsible Institution: CBSI - Target Date: December 2022 - Priority Recommendation: Prepare the metadata, release calendar and revision policy for the GFS and PSDS on the website. - Responsible Institution: CBSI - Target Date: June 2023 - Priority Recommendation: Coordinate and transfer the knowledge of GFS compilation particularly on the EBUs, provincial and local governments, and public corporation. - Responsible Institutions: CBSI and NSO ### Detailed technical assessment and recommended actions H3 A. Data Sources for GFS Compilation - Available data sources: - Primary: 1) BCG general ledger (AX), 2) government bills and bonds issued by the Currency and Banking unit (Registrar) in CBSI, and 3) BOP external donor’s survey. - Secondary: 1) stocks of financial assets and liabilities of financial corporations from the MFS, 2) audited financial statements of government agencies and state own enterprises on the Office of the Auditor General’s website, and 3) BOP external grants. - Using MFS of financial sub-sectors for CG financing (recommended by 2019 mission) reduced discrepancies markedly, though improvement remains possible. - BCG financing calculated from changes in stocks of CG assets and liabilities with financial corporations versus general ledger (AX) where only partial financing represented. - Coverage note: central government deposits with financial corporations include deposit accounts of government agencies, particularly EBUs — e.g., SI National University had deposits of 112.5 Mn. SI$ as of 2016; sum of deposits of SI Visitor Bureau, Civil Aviation Authority of Solomon Islands and Telecommunications Commission SI altogether were less than 10 Mn.SI$. - Government liabilities with financial corporations are not exhaustive: government also has debt liabilities issued to public non-financial corporations. CBSI’s published government debt securities registered with CBSI registrar are larger than those held by financial corporations; CBSI registrar issuance information is a more superior source. - Thirty percent of total deposit of central government agencies are with the other depository corporation and has been increasing over time as opposed to the deposits with the central bank. - Recommended actions: - Use direct information of government debt issuance and treasury deposit accounts with CBSI and other depositor corporations (if any) for compiling BCG financing to reduce inconsistency between GFS and PSDS. - Request names of government agencies/funds that have deposits from depository corporations to update the institutional table; use this as basis for collecting data for other sub-sectors besides BCG. H3 B. Grants Adjustment and other Compilation Issues - Two types of grants needing attention: external grants revenues and subvention and grants (subvention and grants account for 15 percent of government expense). - External grants issues: - Donors contribute in-cash or in-kind. Grants in-kind not recorded in government cash accounts. - Cash grants can be sent directly to government agencies and SOEs outside the budget. - Example: SI Electricity Authority financial statement showed steady flow of grants since 2013 until 2019; other SOEs and SI National University have accumulative stocks of deferred grants recorded in liabilities but did not record grants from external donors since 2015. - BOP records official grants to public sector as funding to government (BOP has only two recipient sectors: general government and private). - Current imputation of discrepancies between BOP and GFS revenue grants: - Distribute discrepancies proportionately between foreign government (90 percent) and international agencies (10 percent) with current and capital ratio of 60:40 and 0:100, respectively (represents average distribution from past grants’ revenue pattern). - Mission recommendation: better to use details of grant primary data from BOP external donor survey rather than aggregated-level imputation. - Interim/improved imputation suggested: - Impute from higher detail of secondary data available in BOP compilation. - Add non-cash component directly to GFS grants received. - The technical assistance component perceived to come majority from international organizations will be imputed to 1311; cash component calculated with same formula as paragraph 15. - Measure is temporary until GFS compilers receive survey information. - Classification of deposits in foreign currency with domestic financial corporations: - These are financial assets with domestic debtors (residency focus), not external — should be reclassified to domestic sector, reducing external financing to zero and increasing domestic financing (results shown in table A2.4). - Recommended Actions: - Use information from BOP external donor survey and validate with AX and grants received by SIEA; evaluate discrepancies between sources and support classification of donors. - While waiting for complete information, update imputation calculation leveraging detail in BOP compilation; add in-kind directly to grants and calculate only cash component then distribute as previously. - Update new GFS series from adjustment from FY2015 with less discrepancies to the GFSY database at the Fund. H3 C. Data Dissemination and Revision Policy - Current dissemination: - CBSI disseminates timely quarterly budgetary central government fiscal statistics via a quarterly review with comprehensive macroeconomic statistics and accompanying tables. - BCG operations (revenue and expenditure) and debt classified by instruments and holders disseminated quarterly with one quarter lag. - Mission suggested release calendar and timing; some items can be released later depending on data and resources at CBSI discretion. - Table 2 — Authorities’ Current and Planned Dissemination Periodicity and Timeliness (items preserved as in source): - 1 General government operations (Sep23) A 3Q September - 2 Budgetary central government operations Jun22) Q 1Q Quarter-end - 3 Budgetary central government operation (including external grants) (Jun22) Q 4.5M Mid quarter - 4 Budgetary central government debt (Jun22) Q 1Q Quarter-end - 5 Central government debt (aggregate) (Mar23) Q 2Q Two quarter-end - 6 Public sector gross debt (aggregate) (Released on an annual basis) (Aug23) Q EVERY 2Y August - Mission encouraged dissemination within timeframe set in the e-GDDS or better; where required, estimation must be made for missing data. - Suggested communication tools: revision policy, metadata, advanced release calendar, and remarks (preliminary, revised, final) to identify quality of publications. - Table 3 — The Periodicity and Timeliness Requirements for Various Dissemination Standards (preserved exactly): - SDDS Plus - General government operations Q 12M - General government gross debt Q 4M - Central government operations M 1M - Central government debt Q 1Q - Central government debt guarantee Q 1Q - SDDS - General government operations A 2Q - Central government operations M 1M - Central government debt Q 1Q - e-GDDS - General government operations A 3Q - Central government operations Q 1Q - Central government gross debt Q 2Q - Recommended Actions: - Prepare metadata, release calendar and revision policy for the GFS and PSDS on the website. - Research and estimate statistics available with significant lags to disseminate within e-GDDS timeframes, accompanied by revision policy, metadata, and advanced release calendar for better communication with users. H3 D. Human Resources, Capacity, and Business Process - (Section heading present in source; detailed content continues beyond supplied excerpt.) *Source: 1slbea2022003 - 1. Priority Recommendations (IMF STA TA mission report, April 18–29, 2022).* ### 20. The NSO has provided a resource to share the responsibility of the GFS compilation. ### 20. The NSO has provided a resource to share the responsibility of the GFS compilation. ### Inter-agency arrangements and scope - Two staffs at CBSI are responsible for fiscal statistics compilation and analysis; limited resources and the pandemic caused CBSI to prioritize quality of budgetary central government (BCG) GFS compilation and PSDS dissemination. - The NSO has long planned to compile GFS and offered to support compilation for other public sub-sectors (EBUs, provincial and local governments, public corporations). - An inter-agency GFS taskforce was welcomed and fully supported by the mission to increase resources and speed up development of GFS coverage extension. - The mission left a draft suggested scope of responsibility between CBSI and NSO and encouraged authorities to discuss and agree on the taskforce setup. ### Capacity building, coordination, and training - CBSI and NSO planned coordination and training since 2019 but this was interrupted by the pandemic. - The mission provided a mini-GFS refresher to the NSO compiler who will support GFS compilation for EBUs, provincial and local governments, and public corporations. - The mission suggested the NSO, with one available resource, complement annual-frequency GFS compilation for other sub-sectors while CBSI maintains high-frequency BCG compilation — to achieve general government GFS in a timely manner for policy analysis and surveillance. - CBSI has a regular resource rotation plan for GFS compilers every two years. ### Business process documentation and continuity - CBSI will continue to lead GFS compilation and move toward higher-quality statistics dissemination; compilation process guidelines and dissemination processes should be prepared and shared among compilers. - Close coordination between CBSI, NSO and other data providers is necessary. - Business process documentation and related files will be useful to ensure continuity of statistical compilation in case of staff changes. ### Recommended actions (from the mission) - Coordinate and transfer the knowledge of GFS compilation particularly on the EBUs, provincial and local governments, and public corporations. - Discuss and agree with a clear division of responsibility and accountability for GFS compilation. - Establish a GFS taskforce and/or committee to improve coordination among compilers and data providers. ### Officials met during the mission - John Rohi — Manager/ Economics, Research and Statistics Department, CBSI - Jack Boe — GFS Senior Analyst/CBSI - Jack Suimae — Research Analyst/CBSI - Rodney Taraha — Ministry of Finance and Treasury - Felix Tapi Magu — Ministry of Finance and Treasury - Andrew Kakata — National Statistical Office - Moffat Sanau — National Statistical Office ### Key fiscal statistics and compilation outcomes (selected figures from 2015–2020) - Revenue (C1): 2015: 4375.33; 2016: 4197.85; 2017: 4543.98; 2018: 4691.91; 2019: 4474; 2020: 4218 - Taxes (C11): 2015: 2664.44; 2016: 2636.78; 2017: 2963.01; 2018: 3279.56; 2019: 2942.20; 2020: 2656.07 - Grants (C13): 2015: 1175.48; 2016: 1118.40; 2017: 1065.90; 2018: 940.95; 2019: 1054.53; 2020: 1114.72 - Expense (C2): 2015: 3277.93; 2016: 3375.99; 2017: 3399.40; 2018: 3509.96; 2019: 3723.67; 2020: 3791.45 - Compensation of employees (C21): 2015: 1066.53; 2016: 1151.07; 2017: 1248.31; 2018: 1322.08; 2019: 1392.75; 2020: 1468.59 - Use of goods and services (C22): 2015: 1615.22; 2016: 2012.32; 2017: 1980.94; 2018: 1856.69; 2019: 2066.72; 2020: 1901.51 - Net operating balance (NOB = C1 - C2): 2015: 1097.40; 2016: 821.87; 2017: 1144.57; 2018: 1181.95; 2019: 750.07; 2020: 426.32 - Net/gross investment in nonfinancial assets (C31): 2015: 794.83; 2016: 1167.84; 2017: 1249.93; 2018: 990.85; 2019: 951.77; 2020: 733.91 - Net lending (+) / Net borrowing (-) (NLB): 2015: 302.56; 2016: -345.98; 2017: -105.36; 2018: 191.10; 2019: -201.70; 2020: -307.59 - Net acquisition of financial assets (C32) after adjustment: 2015: -154.71; 2016: -292.81; 2017: 175.37; 2018: 61.23; 2019: -148.43; 2020: 62.35 - Net incurrence of liabilities (C33) after adjustment: 2015: -175.35; 2016: 31.89; 2017: 216.14; 2018: 65.11; 2019: 59.52; 2020: 375.17 - Domestic financing (after adjustment): 2015: -287.40; 2016: -296.97; 2017: 326.20; 2018: 113.02; 2019: -120.46; 2020: 240.26 - External financing (after adjustment): 2015: -42.66; 2016: 36.05; 2017: 65.31; 2018: 13.32; 2019: 31.55; 2020: 197.26 - Gross Domestic Production (GDP, current market price): 2015: 10,345; 2016: 10,957; 2017: 11,703; 2018: 12,482; 2019: 12,772; 2020: 12,515 - Statistical Discrepancy as % of GDP: 2015: -2.73%; 2016: 0.19%; 2017: 0.55%; 2018: -1.56%; 2019: -0.05%; 2020: -0.04% *Source: 1slbea2022003 - 20. The NSO has provided a resource to share the responsibility of the GFS compilation.* --- _Source: https://www.imf.org/-/media/files/publications/cr/2022/english/1slbea2022003.pdf_