Saint Lucia: Technical Assistance Report-Report on Price Accounts Mission Developing and Updating Producer Price Indexes (September 9–20, 2024)
Technical Assistance Reports, May 2, 2025
Source details
- Canonical URL
- Saint Lucia: Technical Assistance Report-Report on Price Accounts Mission Developing and Updating Producer Price Indexes (September 9–20, 2024)
Other formats
Bibliographic details
- Published: May 2, 2025
- Series: Technical Assistance Reports
- DOI: https://doi.org/10.5089/9798229009850.019
Mission objective and scope
- A Technical Assistance (TA) mission, supported by the Caribbean Technical Assistance Center (CARTAC), was conducted from September 9–20, 2024.
- Objective: to assist Saint Lucia’s Central Statistics Office (CSO) in:
- developing new Producer Price Indexes (PPIs) for the industries of mining, manufacturing, utilities, and construction; and
- updating the existing PPI for accommodation and food services.
- Rationale: Reliable PPIs are critical for improving GDP estimates at constant prices, which will replace the current use of consumer price indices.
Key findings and progress
- Index coverage and weights were updated based on 2023 Value Added Tax (VAT) data.
- Progress following pilot data collection and company visits included improvements to PPI design and data sources.
- The mission helped resolve VAT data classification issues with the Inland Revenue Department (IRD).
- The IRD committed to providing improved datasets and business names to support PPI compilation.
- Administrative data (IRD, National Insurance Corporation (NIC)) are essential given the absence of recent economic census data.
Data, classification, and institutional collaboration
- Administrative data importance:
- The CSO is encouraged to strengthen collaboration with the Inland Revenue Department (IRD) and National Insurance Corporation (NIC).
- Continued engagement with the IRD is important for both PPI development and broader national statistical improvements.
- VAT data issues addressed:
- The mission assisted in resolving VAT data classification issues.
- The IRD committed to supplying improved datasets and business names to the CSO.
Next steps and recommendations
- Finalize activity weights based on 2023 VAT data.
- Complete initial data collection for PPI for industrial activities (mining, manufacturing, utilities, construction).
- Calculate an experimental PPI for industrial activities.
- Strengthen ongoing collaboration between the CSO and administrative data providers (IRD and NIC) to support PPI development and national statistics.
Subjects and keywords (as presented in the source)
- Subjects: Civil society organizations, Data collection, Economic and financial statistics, Economic sectors, Industrial sector, Prices, Producer price indexes, Taxes, Value-added tax
- Keywords: Caribbean, Civil society organizations, Data collection, development of producer prices indexes, draft PPI recruitment questionnaire, Industrial Activities, Industrial sector, pilot data collection of the PPI, PPI coverage, PPI knowledge, Producer Price Index, Producer price indexes, Saint Lucia., Value Added Tax, Value-added tax
International Monetary Fund. Saint Lucia: Technical Assistance Report-Report on Price Accounts Mission Developing and Updating Producer Price Indexes (September 9–20, 2024). May 2, 2025.
Content in this bundle
- tarea2025047-print-pdf