Papua New Guinea is developing its business statistics with the aid of Pacific partners and peers, including the Pacific Community (SPC), as the country pursues sustainable economic development.
Papua New Guinea’s National Statistical Office hosted technical training on business statistics in July with the support of economics and statistics counterparts from Fiji, Australia and SPC, as the populous developing nation seeks to support the sustainable growth of its enterprises and economy.
Business statistics are national, official data, and track key indicators such as business activity, sector performance and economic trends, offering vital information for policymakers and analysts to gauge and guide economic development.
The in-country training was focused on data quality, the analysis and packaging of business statistics, in readiness for Papua New Guinea’s National Statistical Office becoming the official sole source of high-quality business statistics that meet the needs of their users.
Papua New Guinea has faced challenges with its national statistics, grappling with issues of data accuracy and timeliness in a large, populous country with developing infrastructure. This can hinder effective planning and policymaking.
Papua New Guinea’s National Statistician Mr John Igitoi emphasised the need to strengthen skills at his statistics agency through professional development so that timely, relevant and methodologically sound data can be produced.
The technical training was led by Ms Nilima Lal of SPC’s Statistics for Development Division, supported by New Zealand’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, and had Mr Rajnesh Narayan of Fiji’s Bureau of Statistics providing peer-to-peer facilitation.
The training also had Mr Shane Maher of the Australian Bureau of Statistics—who designed the business survey processing system—providing an insight into the business data collected thus far from the business survey in progress for calendar year 2023.
SPC’s Ms Lal explains that improved business statistics are fundamental to Papua New Guinea achieving its economic development goals.
“Reliable data is crucial for understanding economic markets and activity, shaping policy, and fostering sustainable growth in a developing economy,” she says.
“By working on statistical capability, Papua New Guineans unlock the potential of data to drive economic growth. Robust statistics are not just numbers; they are the foundation for setting good priorities and making sound decisions.”
The training sought to strengthen compilation methodology and address capacity gaps through both theoretical learning and hands-on experience in business data compilation.
It supported statistics staff, including 10 new employees, in the use of the UN’s International Standard Industrial Classification, a system used to classify and categorise economic activities, and the Business Register, referring to a database usually maintained by a central statistics agency that records information about enterprises operating to be then used for analyses.
The training covered all aspects of data collection using survey and administrative methods, to the compilation and analysis of business statistics and demography in readiness for the National Statistical Office to rebase gross domestic product (GDP) using the ‘production approach’—calculating GDP by summing the value added at each stage of production across all sectors of the economy.
Finally, the team also took the opportunity to discuss the reports that need to be prepared on business statistics after completion of the survey—providing valuable information to all businesses who participated—and indicators on business performance that could be compiled every quarter to assist statisticians, policymakers plus businesses to see how the private sector performed.
According to the 2022 GDP results released, seven industrial sections together contributed 85 per cent to the 2022 GDP:
- agriculture
- mining
- construction
- wholesale and retail trade; repair of motor vehicles, motorcycles
- real estate activities
- administrative and support service activities, and
- public administration and defence; compulsory social security.
For more information, please contact Ben Campion, Communications and Engagement Adviser for SPC’s Statistics for Development Division at [email protected].
