Santiago, June 2026 — The International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the Caribbean Regional Technical Assistance Centre (CARTAC) organized a High-Level Workshop on the Implementation of the Balance of Payments and International Investment Position Manual, seventh edition (BPM7), and the 2025 System of National Accounts (SNA) on 16, 17 and 18 June 2026 in Panama City. The workshop was aimed at directors of national statistical offices in the Caribbean. ECLAC was invited to participate as a speaker and presented, before this forum of statistical authorities, the results and road map of its technical cooperation work in the region.

The workshop addressed the priorities that the region will need to tackle in preparation for the 2025 SNA: harmonization between the balance of payments and national accounts, migration to the Government Finance Statistics Manual 2014, and progress in publishing institutional sector accounts. The importance of adopting methodological frameworks was emphasized, while also improving the consistency, timeliness, coverage and integrity of the underlying statistical information.

In its presentation, the Statistics Division outlined the five-pillar strategy through which it supports the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean — both its 33 member States and the associated States and territories of the region: the Annual Seminar on National Accounts, active since 1987 and the main forum for regional technical exchange; collaboration on technical cooperation projects in international trade statistics; webinars of the Knowledge Transfer Network of the Statistical Conference of the Americas; the strengthening of basic statistics; and direct technical assistance to countries through its regional advisers. In the area of trade in services, the Division highlighted progress in implementing the Trade in Services Statistics Information System (TiSSTAT) in seven Caribbean countries. Developed jointly with UNCTAD, the platform enables statistical offices to collect, validate and compile trade in services data and responds directly to the needs of statistical offices.

ECLAC also presented the state of national accounts and balance of payments in the region. Progress has been concrete: 88% of the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean already compile their accounts in accordance with the 2008 SNA, and 27 of the region’s 33 economies — 82% — compile quarterly accounts. Nevertheless, significant gaps persist, particularly in the Caribbean, where GDP measurement by expenditure approach remains limited. Structural obstacles are also shared across the region: restricted access to administrative records, limited use of electronic invoicing and big data, and legal and institutional barriers to information exchange between public agencies. The Caribbean also faces specific challenges in the regularity of household surveys, an essential input for the compilation of national accounts.