MALDIVES Key Learnings and Experiences from the NSS review and National Account Developments. Fourth Project Support Meeting Bangkok, Thailand | 13 November 2017

Outline of Presentation What is the motivation of the project? What are you trying to achieve? What issues have you faced? And how do you intend to overcome them? What is your plan to progress the project (including timelines)? What have you learnt from the project so far? How does this affect RPES? (See slide notes below) How does this affect RPES? This slide varies depending on the nature of the presentation. For countries that are presenting on the projects not part of the RPES (Bangladesh, Lao PDR, Nepal and Timor Leste) the slide presents an opportunity to identify how the RPES could support the current project or how the project could be used to help other project country members – a case study for regional dissemination for example. For countries presenting on an RPES project (Bhutan, Cambodia, Maldives, Myanmar, Sri Lanka and Viet Nam) the focus is on “how do the lessons affect future project implementation”. This can be for your country perspective or recommendations for the RPES project and other countries considering similar projects.

Motivation / Achieve As part of a mid-term review of the current NSDS 2010-2019, Maldives have completed the assessment of the National Statistical System with a specific focus on economic statistics. The Review was jointly undertaken UNESCAP and the UNSD The objective of the Review of the National Statistical System (NSS) was to; provide a comprehensive analysis of the institutional, organizational and technical capacity of the country to produce and disseminate official statistics that comply with international standards and recommendations. covered the Lead Agency for Statistics, as well as other major producers and users of official statistics in the country. reviewed technical capacity focusing on data sources and statistical business processes for the production and dissemination of economic statistics and the entities that produce these statistics.

Motivation / Achieve Review will feed into; The development of a National Economic Statistics Development Plan to strengthen the Economic Statistics Revision of the current NSDS (from 2019 - 2029) Incorporate specific SDG focus to the existing NSDS and upgrade it to ensure that the needs for data and capacity building in support of SDGs are properly addressed in the strategy in terms of social as well as environmental statistics

Issues / Overcome The review was very much focused on the economic statistics and the institutional issues, it lacks the social and environmental aspects and the focus on SDGs Broader review of the NSDS is proposed with the inclusion of specific SDG focus to the existing NSDS and address the social as well as environmental statistics A training on NSDS is proposed The priority given to data/statistics at policy is very low Taking the opportunity of the implementation of SDGs at national level to promote the importance of data in monitoring the progress given the importance of the data gaps/weaknesses in the data systems

Plan to Progress / Timelines The ownership of the review was taken by the NBS on behalf of the Maldives; International Seminar on National Statistical Systems reviews in SID, Fiji – 1-3 August 2017 The recommendations identified in the review had been summarized/documented; to be shared at stakeholder level and agree on the timelines to the activities to cater the recommendations acceptable/implementable by the NSS of the Maldives To launch the process of NSDS broad review which accommodates the needs of SDG data requirements and capacity building needs and action plans A training on NSDS is proposed for 27-29 November 2017 – with PARIS21; as part of the preparation of the NSOS. The objective of the activity is to discuss the process in Maldives to ensure alignment of the NSDS with national development plans and priorities as well as with the SDGs, bring together NSS stakeholders to solicit commitment and ownership of the NSDS process, and establish working groups that will undertake the preparation of specific action plans for the NSDS.

Lessons learnt The need for a broad review , update the NSDS The weaknesses across the national statistical system; Absence of a strong legal framework Professional Independence Requirement of data users participation in strengthening the national statistical system – regular forums with users to identify their data needs Business sector data - coverage low Access to administrative data – improve the quality for it be processed to official statistics Needs funds for statistics coordinated Statistical activities coordination within the national statistical system Data Dissemination be strengthened – release calendars for the publications

National Accounts of the Maldives The compilation of the national accounts of the Maldives is governed by the Statistics Regulation of the Maldives from 2012 (SRM). The national accounts are broadly following the methodology of the 2008 System of National Accounts Manual (SNA2008) Annual GDP estimates are compiled at constant prices of 2014 and then reflated to derive the current price estimates The present national accounts framework closely follows the “Macro-Economic Budget” (MEB) framework A set of volume indicators is used to extrapolate the value added of the respective industries in order to estimate the annual GDP by production approach at constant prices. data from the financial statements of enterprises, price indices such as PPI, CPI and unit-value indices to extrapolate industry value added

Recommendations in the review; to improve the availability of data through the development of a comprehensive and integrated system of economic surveys; to grant access to unit-level data from administrative records and registers; and to increase the number of qualified staff in charge of the compilation of national accounts along with providing training Opportunities and developing measures to retain experienced staff. proposed, at least for each base year, to compile a new set of Supply-Use tables (SUT) at current and constant prices. to improve the quality and coverage of national accounts to improve the estimate of the informal economy, administrative data and results from economic surveys and censuses should be complemented with those collected through regular and ad-hoc household surveys and in particular from the HIES.

Recently completed activities Compilation of Supply and Use Table 2014 Compilation of Input-Output Table for 2014 Rebasing ANA to 2014 UVI for imports and exports compilation from 2014 - 2016

On-going activities PPI rebasing QNA at Constant price rebasing to 2014 Development of QNA in current price – delays due to lower response rate from PPI establishments Compilation of SUT time series 2012 and 2013 with the assistance of ADB ICP 2017

Planned activities for 2018 Improving the price statistics data by rebasing CPI Compile SUT 2016 and rebase GDP to 2016 Compile IOT for 2016 Economic Analysis using IOT and VAT Forum with the assistance from ADB

Impact on RPES Additional technical expertise on guidance/assistance on improving the economic statistics based on the recommendations highlighted in the NSS review The Development and maintenance of an updated Statistical Business Register (SBR) Conduct a data mapping exercise on existing data sources (censuses, surveys and administrative data) Establish an integrated data system for economic and environment statistics Establishment of an economic statistics short course to cater the National Statistical System at the CSTI

Q&A