Status of implementation of the System of National Accounts (SNA) 1993 in selected Caribbean countries

The Caribbean countries have for decades been described as being "data poor". The inability of the countries to provide, in a number of areas, data on certain issues of national or world importance has its roots in the poor information infrastructure that characterizes the Caribbean countries. The national accounts are designed to provide information on almost every aspect of national life that must be of interest to the administration and citizenry alike. This paper looks at the countries' implementation of the United Nations System of National Accounts (SNA); from the attempt to implement the 1968 version to the contemporary effort to update to the 1993 version, which is more demanding of data from a narrow information infrastructure. It discusses SNA 1968 outputs from a selection of Caribbean countries and examines the prerequisites for the successful implementation of SNA 1993. The issues of information architecture, networking and political will are discussed in an attempt to identify a way forward into implementation