Economics and Statistics Office

http://www.eso.ky/

The Cayman Islands’ Economics and Statistics Office (ESO) is a department of the Portfolio of Finance and Economics

The Cayman Islands’ Economics and
Statistics Office (ESO) is made up of two technically independent
units:
 the Statistics Unit
 the Economics Unit
Staff: ESO is currently manned by 15 professional and 2 administrative staff and 8 survey assistants. Among our professional
staff are senior statisticians and senior economists who have international or regional experience and training.
Additionally, trained enumerators and field supervisors are hired on a needs basis for surveys and censuses.

The Statistics unit’s duties: producing the country’s official national
statistics and for providing statistical assistance to government organizations. It liaises with international and regional
bodies on statistical matters.

The Economics Unit duties: forecasts mandated in the Public
Management and Financial Law, and the requisite macroeconomic modeling, monitoring, reporting and research. It also provides research and other technical assistance to local and international agencies.

The very first official statistics on the Cayman Islands was the 1802 census, which was conducted by Edward Corbet, a staff aide to the Governor of Jamaica, Lieutenant General George Nugent. At that time Corbet recorded 933 residents on Grand Cayman, including 545 slaves. He reported that the sister islands of Cayman Brac and Little Cayman were uninhabited, being visited only by turtlers during the summer season.
As a dependency of Jamaica, experts were brought from Kingston to conduct statistical and economic surveys. With the launch of the West Indian Federation in 1959, Cayman ceased to be a dependency of Jamaica and gained its own constitution. During the intervening years, assistance came mainly from the British Development Division in the Caribbean, based in Barbados.
Creation of the Portfolio of Finance
In 1955, the Treasury Department was created from what was previously the Department of Treasury, Customs and Post Office. Mr. Desmond V. Watler was appointed as Cayman’s first Treasurer, with Mr. Vassel G. Johnson as Assistant Treasurer.
In 1969, the title of Treasurer was changed to Financial Secretary. Under the new constitution that came into effect in 1972, the Financial Secretary, Mr. Vassel G. Johnson, became an official member of Executive Council (Cabinet) with responsibilities for the following areas: Treasury, Savings Bank, Currency Board, Companies Registry, Bank Inspection, Development Unit, Exchange Control, Budget, and later Insurance, Statistics and Computers.
Changing the Statistics Law in 1970 and 1996
A new Statistics Law was passed in March of 1970 to replaced Law 14 of 1967, which became obsolete as the Cayman Islands separated from Jamaica. It gave legal backing to the census conducted later that year. Despite the successful passage of this Law, the community at large was concerned about Government’s increasing need for information. These fears were heightened when government started looking into the cost of living. Of particular concern was the invasion of privacy.
The Financial Secretary explained why it was important to collect the various economic and social statistics. Key users such as developers, and investors were surprised at the lack of information on the economy.
The Statistical Law was revised in 1996. The law is referred to as Statistics Law (1996 Revision) and is still in use.
Evolution of the Economics & Statistics Office
It was not until 1976 that the Statistics Unit was established in the Portfolio of Finance with Mr. Ned Solomon, Executive Officer and Ms Carolyn Cupidon, Clerical Officer. In 1977, Mr. James A. Hunter was appointed as Sr. Assistant Secretary in the Portfolio of Finance with
responsibility for Development and Statistics. The total staff complement at that time was five, including the vacant post of Executive Officer.
On the 22nd October 1983, Mr. Graham Jones was seconded from the United Kingdom Statistical Services to become Cayman’s first resident Statistician. His successor was Mr. Phillip Turnbull (1985-1990), whose post was upgraded to Chief Statistician in 1989. Other Chief Statisticians included Mrs. Penny Bassett (1990 -1992), Mr. Brian Boxill (1992-2003), and Mr. Christian Lajule (2003 – 2004).
In 1986, Mr. D. M. Scott was recruited through the British Executive Services Overseas (BESO) as a short-term Economic Development Advisor. On a more permanent basis, Mr. Rudyard Robinson was appointed as Chief Economist and served in that capacity from 1988 to 1993. He was followed by Mr. Lyndon Martin who served as Assistant Economist between 1993 and 1995.
Between 1995 and 2000, the Economics & Statistics Office was created with Mr. Brian Boxill as Director and Dr. Elizabeth Parsan as Deputy Director responsible for Economics. The Economics section was separated from Statistics in 2000 and was headed by Dr. Parsan until 2003. The Economics & Statistics Office was finally reconstituted in 2003 under the Directorship of Ms. Catharine Read and with Mr. Christian Lajule as Chief Statistician.

THE STATISTICS LAW (1996 Revision)
Consolidated with Law 12 of 1988.
Revised under the authority of the Law Revision Law (19 of 1975)
Originally enacted-
Law 2 of 1970-24th March, 1970
Law 12 of 1988-9th September, 1988.
Consolidated and revised 26 March, 1996.

Department of Tourism
Cayman Islands Monetary Authority (CIMA)
Royal Cayman Islands Police Department
Education Department
Department of Agriculture
Health Services Authority

October 1999

No information derived from any Government, parochial, municipal or other public records or documents relating to any individual, corporation, partnership, firm, association or institute shall be published in such form as to enable any person to identify such information as relating to any individual, corporation, partnership, firm, association or institute, except-
(a) in the case of information relating to an individual, partnership or firm, with the consent in writing of such individual or of all the partners of such firm, as the case may be; and
(b) in the case of information relating to a corporation or an unincorporated association or institution after the passing by the directors or other governing body (by whatever name known) of such corporation or unincorporated association or institution, or if there is no such governing body by the members of such corporation or unincorporated association or institution, of a resolution approving of the publication of such information:
Provided that this prohibition shall not apply in the case of and for the purpose of a prosecution under this Law or under the regulations.

 Forecasts of GDP growth, inflation,
employment and the current account of
the balance of payments as presented in
the Strategic Policy Statement of the
government.
• Quarterly economic reports: these
summarize trends of national indicators
(imports, employment, CPI, money
supply and credit to sectors) and sector
indicators (finance, tourism, housing and
property transfers).
• Annual economic reports: these
provide an overview of the state of the
Cayman Islands’ economy as at year-end
and consists of:
 The global and regional economic
performance and outlook including global
tourism and finance;
 Local macroeconomic performance,
fiscal performance, sector developments
and outlook for the following year.
• Country data requested by
international and regional agencies, and by
the private sector.
• Economic studies or research
commissioned by the government or
regional organizations, including
economic impact assessment.

English

Paper, Website.