Quote: 'The success of the United Nations’ 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development is measured using 231 globally agreed indicators, 46 of them require the calculation of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), a complex indicator calling for a long list of statistics. Measuring success in achieving the 2030 Agenda therefore depends on a considerable amount of work by all national statistical offices of the world. This requires financial and human resources, something often in short supply in small, developing nations such as many Pacific island States.
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A closer look at the Pacific island States tells a different story
The SPC study reveals a typical Pacific island State produces around 40% as many priority economic indicators as a typical Asia-Pacific country.
Among the priority indicators, only GDP (by production approach) is produced by all countries. The second-most produced indicator is the Consumer Price Index (CPI), the headline measure of inflation.
Inability to produce other core economic indicators means less information available to make informed policy decisions. For example, a government will lack a tool for labour dispute resolution if information on labour supply, demand, costs and wages is incomplete. Wage/earnings data is only produced by eight of the Pacific island States, labour supply and demand by four of the Pacific island States covered in the study and none (!) produce labour cost and wage indices.
Producing an indicator once is not enough. Regular updates are needed to monitor trends. And here, the Pacific island States struggle even more. Of all priority indicators, only the CPI is produced with the recommended frequency.' UNESCAP