The Governor of the Cbbh Supports Household Budget Survey for BH

The Governor of the Central Bank of BH (CBBH) Peter Nicholl welcomed the initiative on a household budget survey (HBS) for BH, which will provide vital information on household income and expenditure for use in preparing much needed improvements to BH's national accounts, especially data on Gross Domestic Product (GDP), and also data for substantially improving BiH consumer price indices.

The Governor discussed a proposed household budget survey with representatives of the Institute of Statistics in Italy (ISTAT) Ms Micaela Jouvenal and Mr Giulio Barcaroli, who are also members of the Italian Mission which has been negotiating with BH State and entity statistical offices, with participation by the IMF Statistical Advisor for BH, on a proposed household budget survey (HBS) for BH.

Peter Nicholl said this survey of 6000 households will be substantially funded by the Italian Government with technical assistance from ISTAT, which has long assisted the development of statistics in this country.

The project, to be held over two years and costing over 860000 euros, will be coordinated by the State Agency for Statistics BHAS) and conducted in cooperation with the entity statistical institutes. The Governor said this will be the most valuable statistical activity since the war to improve national accounts and price statistics in BiH.

The Governor thanked the mission for Italy's assistance for improving statistics in BiH and offered his full support for the project. He welcomed the mission's advice that the project is likely to commence in the very near future.