To create the “Puerto Rico Tourism Satellite Account System Act” to present fundamental economic information on the impact of tourism in relation to Gross Domestic Product, gross value added, employment, taxation and the direct and indirect value that tourism brings to the economy of Puerto Rico, in order to develop policies aimed at boosting and developing the tourism sector in Puerto Rico.

To order the Secretary of Health of Puerto Rico to conduct a census concentrated on blind citizens residing on the Island; and for other related purposes.

STATEMENTS BY DR. MARIO MARAZZI-SANTIAGO, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF THE INSTITUTE REGARDING HIS SELECTION AS A MEMBER OF THE CENSUS SCIENTIFIC ADVISORY COUNCIL ATTACHED TO U.S. CENSUS BUREAU

It is an honor to have been selected in my personal capacity to serve as a member of the Census Scientific Advisory Council. As part of these new functions, we will be advising the Federal Census Bureau on the way to the 2020 Census. We appreciate the trust placed by the acting director of U.S. Census Bureau, Ron Jarmin and the Secretary of Federal Commerce, Wilbur Ross, who have invited, for the first time, a Puerto Rican to be part of this prestigious committee.

Now that the 2020 Census is approaching, so that in the next decade we have the basic information necessary for country decision-making, it is crucial that the planning and execution of a decennial population and housing census take into account the particular circumstances and idiosyncrasies of Puerto Rico.

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Note: For more information about the appointment made by the U.S. Census Bureau and the communication made by the entity can visit the following link: https://www.census.gov/newsroom/press-releases/2018/csac.html.

Press Contact: Sandra Morales Blanes/787-688-0401

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BOARD OF DIRECTORS OF THE INSTITUTE OF STATISTICS ANNOUNCES THE ELECTION OF ARNALDO CRUZ, CO-FOUNDER OF ABRE PUERTO RICO, AS ITS NEW PRESIDENT

San Juan, PR, August 1, 2018 — The Board of Directors of the Puerto Rico Statistics Institute (Institute) today announced the unanimous election of Arnaldo Cruz, co-founder of Abre Puerto Rico and director of Research and Analysis of Foundation for Puerto Rico, as the new president of the organization.

Cruz was elected at the first meeting of the Institute's Board of Directors held yesterday afternoon and in accordance with the provisions of Section VII of the Institute's Internal Regulations. It establishes that the members who will occupy seats on the Executive Committee, composed of the President, Vice President and Secretary of the Board, will be elected during the first meeting of the Board of Directors at the beginning of each fiscal year and by a majority vote of those present.

“I am grateful for the opportunity given to me to work with an excellent team such as the Institute of Statistics, under the executive direction of Dr. Mario Marazzi-Santiago,” said the new President of the Board of Directors of the Institute, who holds a master's degree in Public Policy from Harris School of Public Policy Studies, from the University of Chicago.

“I accept this great challenge, aware of the great need that our government has to improve the accessibility and quality of its statistics and the enormous fiscal challenges for these purposes. At the Institute of Statistics, we are available to support the Government of Puerto Rico and achieve important goals of common interest, such as the quality of public data and government transparency, in all aspects,” Cruz said.

On the other hand, the position of vice-president of the Board of Directors of the Institute will be occupied by the doctor in Economics, Antonio J. Fernós, who served as president for the past 2 years and the position of secretary by the Lcdo. Alex López, who is currently serving as an advisor to the Puerto Rico Senate.

Meanwhile, Ana L. Dávila, PhD in Demography and professor of the Demography Program at the University of Puerto Rico (UPR), Medical Sciences Campus, Ana L. Dávila and the PhDs in Statistics and professors from the Faculty of Business Administration of the UPR, Recinto de Río Piedras, Marta Álvarez and Sonia C. Balet, will continue as members of the Board of Directors.

The Puerto Rico Statistics Institute is an autonomous governmental entity responsible for coordinating the Government's statistical production service to ensure that the data collection and statistics systems, on which public policies are based, are complete, reliable, and have quick and universal access. The Institute has in its inventory, accessible through https://estadisticas.pr.gov, about 300 statistical products. In addition, it is a custodian and provides access to over 100 data sets or “data sets” through https://data.pr.gov and to over 40 tables and more than 6 thousand indicators through: https://www.indicadores.pr.

In addition, as the leading entity of the State Data Center (SDC) of Puerto Rico, the Institute manages the SDC portal, which contains the main statistical reports and publications of the U.S. Census Bureau on Puerto Rico, specifically those that are most in demand, such as annual population estimates; the Puerto Rico Community Survey (Puerto Rico Community Survey) and official statistics on Puerto Rico's 10-year population and housing censuses, among others. The Puerto Rico SDC portal can be accessed through: https://censo.estadisticas.pr/.

For more information you can visit our website: https://estadisticas.pr.gov. In addition, you can follow us on social networks through Facebook accounts (https://www.facebook.com/estadisticas.pr), Twitter (https://twitter.com/estadisticaspr) and LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/company/instituto-de-estadisticas-de-puerto-rico.

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Press Contact: Sandra Morales Blanes/(787) 688-0401

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72,000 net passengers returned on domestic flights in the first 4 months of the year

The data confirms the return of people after the passage of Hurricane Maria

San Juan, PR, July 13, 2017 — The Puerto Rico Statistics Institute (Institute) today released updated data on the movement of air passengers on domestic flights up to the month of April 2018, as reported by airlines to U.S. Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS). Here's a summary of the most striking results:

• In the last 4 months of last year (September to December 2017), during the aftermath of Hurricane Maria, about -200,000 net passengers departed on domestic flights.

• In contrast, in the first 4 months of the year (January to April 2018), about 72,000 people arrived in Puerto Rico in net terms on domestic flights.

• This represents a notable change from previous years. For example, for the same period last year (January to April 2017), instead of experiencing a net passenger arrival, almost -40,000 net air passengers had departed.

• In the first 10 months of fiscal year 2017-18, there was a net movement of air passengers on domestic flights of almost -155 thousand air passengers. In the last 3 calendar years (2014, 2015 and 2016), the net movement of air passengers on domestic flights was an average departure of -89,000 passengers per year.

“We have been trying to identify a return pattern after Hurricane Maria for some time. Finally, these data confirm that trend. Although the figure does not indicate that a similar number of people have returned among those who left after the Hurricane, the data suggests that this return process has begun. We will have to see how the movement of passengers behaves during this summer to get a more complete picture. But, for now, these data suggest that for fiscal year 2017-18 there will be a net migration of approximately -150 to -170 thousand people. If so, this will represent an increase in the migratory wave that Puerto Rico had been experiencing before the Hurricane, which was around -90,000 people a year before the passage of Hurricane Maria. But, at the same time, it will represent a substantially lower increase than the -250,000 people that had been projected in the last Fiscal Plan,” said Dr. Mario Marazzi-Santiago, executive director of the Institute.

Data on the net movement of air passengers can be downloaded from: https://indicadores.pr/dataset/vuelos-pasajeros-aereos-y-carga-puerto-rico.

The Puerto Rico Statistics Institute is an autonomous governmental entity responsible for coordinating the Government's statistical production service to ensure that the data collection and statistics systems, on which public policies are based, are complete, reliable, and have quick and universal access. The IEPR has in its inventory, accessible through www.estadisticas.pr.gov, over 300 statistical products. In addition, it is a custodian and provides access to over 100 data sets or “data sets” through www.data.pr.gov and to over 40 tables and more than 6 thousand indicators through: www.indicadores.pr.

In addition, as the leading entity of the Puerto Rico SDC, the IEPR manages the SDC portal, where you can find the main statistical reports and publications of the U.S. Census Bureau on Puerto Rico, specifically those that are most in demand, such as annual population estimates; the Puerto Rico Community Survey (Puerto Rico Community Survey) and official statistics on Puerto Rico's 10-year population and housing censuses, among others. The Puerto Rico SDC portal can be accessed through: https://censo.estadisticas.pr/.

For more information you can visit our website: www.estadisticas.pr.gov. In addition, you can follow us on social networks through Facebook (estadisticas.pr), Twitter (@EstadisticasPR) and LinkedIn (Institute of Statistics of Puerto Rico) accounts.

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Press Contact: Sandra Morales Blanes (787) 688-0401

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PRESS RELEASE

DR. MARIO MARAZZI‐SANTIAGO

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

U.S. Energy Information Administration includes electricity generation data in PR

This makes it possible to individually access data from each ESA generating plant, among others.

San Juan, PR, July 12, 2018 — For the first time, data on each generating unit in Puerto Rico are accessible and have been included in the inventory of U.S. Energy Information Administration (LIA) which means a great achievement for the transparency of related information by the Electric Power Authority (EEA) and other energy companies in Puerto Rico.

This was confirmed by the Puerto Rico Statistics Institute (Institute), representative of the Government of Puerto Rico to the EIA and which has been working for several years to integrate data from Puerto Rico into the statistical inventory of that federal entity. The EIA conducts several annual and monthly surveys of companies and entities that work in the energy industry in the United States, including the electricity sector. They allow us to know in a more timely manner the evolution of Puerto Rico's energy system.

In the case of Puerto Rico, previously it only conducted an annual survey of companies and entities in this sector. Since 2014, thanks to the coordination and initiative of the Institute, the ESA began to take part and participate in monthly electricity sector surveys that allow us to perceive short-term changes in consumption and in the price paid for electricity in Puerto Rico. Now, data is added that allows us to geographically visualize where the generating plants have been located and how much each one generates, among other details. Previously, information could only be accessed globally.

The executive director of the Institute, Dr. Mario Marazzi-Santiago, stressed the importance of continuing to add ESA statistics to the monthly surveys carried out by the EIA, since they allow us to evaluate sales, consumption and price more frequently, among other important aspects. “This is another great achievement for the transparency that our government aspires to, in every area. We will have monthly indicators of the operational status of each generating unit, which can only benefit Puerto Rico, just as the Government has announced a plan to profoundly transform the Electric Power Authority,” said the Executive Director of the Institute.

The data can be accessed through the Preliminary Monthly Electric Generator Inventory. It can be seen that before 1958 all the plants were hydroelectric. While with few exceptions, those that were built and started operations between 1958 and 2009 run on oil and are still in operation. Renewable energy sources, including solar and wind, were added in 2011. After Hurricane Maria, which hit Puerto Rico in September 2017, most of the plants are operating. Some wind and solar plants have not yet been able to resume operations, but they hope to be able to do so this year.

By law, the Institute represents the Government of Puerto Rico before the EIA. In 2013, the Institute recommended that the EIA include ESA in its monthly survey. By 2014, the fruits of this initiative began to be seen with the inclusion of Puerto Rico in one of the monthly surveys. From then on, the working sessions between the EIA and the ESA were achieved, which has allowed the above-mentioned achievements.

The Puerto Rico Statistics Institute is an autonomous governmental entity responsible for coordinating the Government's statistical production service to ensure that the data collection and statistics systems, on which public policies are based, are complete, reliable, and have quick and universal access. The Institute has in its inventory, accessible through www.estadisticas.pr.gov, about 300 statistical products. In addition, it is a custodian and provides access to over 100 data sets or “data sets” through www.data.pr.gov and to over 40 tables and more than 6 thousand indicators through: www.indicadores.pr.

In addition, as the leading entity of the State Data Center (SDC) of Puerto Rico, the Institute manages the SDC portal, which contains the main statistical reports and publications of the U.S. Census Bureau on Puerto Rico, specifically those that are most in demand, such as annual population estimates; the Puerto Rico Community Survey (Puerto Rico Community Survey) and official statistics on Puerto Rico's 10-year population and housing censuses, among others. The Puerto Rico SDC portal can be accessed through: https://censo.estadisticas.pr/.

For more information you can visit our website: www.estadisticas.pr.gov. In addition, you can follow us on social networks through Facebook accounts (statistics.pr), Twitter (@EstadisticasPR) and LinkedIn (Institute of Statistics of Puerto Rico).

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Press Contact: Sandra Morales Blanes/(787) 688-0401

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