UN-ESCWA is organizing a Workshop on “Composite Economic Indicators for Short-term Economic Forecasting” at the Radisson SAS Hotel, Amman-Jordan, on 12 and 13 March 2007. The main objective of short-term economic forecasting is to assess economic conditions and use this as a guide to the necessary policies required for preserving economic activity at the highest sustainable level. The lack of knowledge of what is happening in the economy without an informed view of its likely performance in the months ahead, prevents governments from formulating and implementing intelligent policies to further the economic objectives considered necessary.

The workshop, which will open at 10:00 am next Monday, is intended to enhance the capacity of UN-ESCWA member countries to prepare short-term economic forecasts by building “composite economic indicators” and upgrading institutional capabilities to initiate and develop those indicators. Another objective is to increase awareness of the need for quarterly national accounting time series in member countries. At the end of the workshop, institutional capacities will have been built in UN-ESCWA member countries to initiate, update and utilize available short-term statistics to construct composite economic indicators for short-term economic forecasting.

Participants in the workshop include government officials in charge of economic forecasting in central banks, national statistical offices and finance ministries; research economists at universities, international and regional organizations and civil society; as well as financial economists from the private sector. The participants should be aware of the availability or lack thereof of short-term metadata in their respective home countries. They are expected to have basic knowledge in basic econometrics, economic statistics and economic forecasting; and to submit a brief on the state of macroeconomic forecasting in their own countries.