The Statistics Division at ESCWA together with the Arab Institute for Training and Research in statistics (AITRS), in collaboration with the United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD), conducted a joint regional workshop on National Accounts and the development of Economic Statistics Infrastructure for a better monitoring of economic related SDG indicators in Amman Jordan during May 15-18, 2017. The workshop brought together national accounts experts from all the Arab countries together with experts from UNSD, UNECA and UNESCWA. The workshop was scheduled into different sessions which tackled different themes in the area of economic statistics and revolved around the implementation of SNA 2008 and its long term impact on a better SDG monitoring of economic related indicators, the use of supply and Use tables and the assessment of its implementation in different countries of the Arab region and the importance of implementing Statistical Business Registers and its linkage to National Accounts compilation and the measurement of SDG indicators. The workshop also allocated a significant slot for tackling the coverage of the informal economy and shed light on financial corporations and measurement of the financial services and insurance.

The workshop met its objectives in terms of assessing the countries’ lags in the tackled areas of economic statistics and identifying the main themes and topics to be treated more deliberately, and it also helped identify the main areas and components of economic statistics on which ESCWA shall support some pilot countries in implementing and developing within their national statistical infrastructures.