Puerto Rico Statistics Institute participates in the hearing of the Natural Resources Committee of the United States House of Representatives

Washington, DC — June 21, 2024. The Puerto Rico Statistics Institute (Institute) participated in the hearing of the Subcommittee on Indigenous and Insular Affairs of the Committee on Natural Resources of the United States House of Representatives. During the hearing, entitled Examining the findings of the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to address data breaches and improve data collection in the territories, the importance of having high-quality statistics for effective democratic governance and the appropriate allocation of government resources was emphasized.

The representative of the Institute at these hearings, Mr. Jacobo Orenstein Cardona, said that the Institute supports the recent GAO report, which recommends “that the Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) ensure that your Chief Statistician develops a coordinated approach at the government level so that federal statistical agencies, in consultation with U.S. territories and other stakeholders, examine the costs, benefits and feasibility of including territories in statistical products and, as appropriate, identify ways to address any data gaps.”

During his presentation, Orenstein-Cardona, who is also the Institute's executive assistant, emphasized that “high-quality statistics are fundamental to a functional democracy because they provide a factual basis for making informed decisions. In a democratic society, the ability of citizens to make educated decisions about their governance and policies is paramount.”

Among other issues, Orenstein-Cardona emphasized that “high-quality statistics help in the allocation of government resources, since they indicate where more investment is needed, whether in education, health, infrastructure or other areas. They also promote a culture of responsibility, where public officials are responsible for their decisions and the results obtained.”

Orenstein-Cardona concluded his presentation by mentioning that, “through collaboration with federal and local governments, the Institute can serve as an intermediary and contribute significantly to the inclusion of Puerto Rico in federal statistical products. This will allow for comparability with other jurisdictions in the United States and will improve the reliability of statistics for the benefit of the entire population of 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.

For more information you can visit the website: www.estadisticas.pr or write to preguntas@estadisticas.pr. They can also follow social networks through Facebook (@estadisticas .pr), X (@EstadisticasPR), LinkedIn (Institute of Statistics of Puerto Rico) and Instagram (@institutodeestadisticas) accounts.

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Statistics Institute announces the opening of the enrollment period for its Academies and Workshops for training in data production and analysis

PRESS RELEASE

Statistics Institute publishes new section on economic indicators

The executive director of the Puerto Rico Statistics Institute (Institute), Dr. Orville M. Disdier, announced the availability of a new section of some economic indicators on its website, presented through interactive graphics.

“Fulfilling our mission of providing citizens with universal and rapid access to statistics, we created this section that will serve as a reference for government and private enterprise, in economic terms. In the same way, as the section is nourished with new data, it could eventually help outline plans for economic recovery due to COVID-19,” said Disdier.

The section currently has interactive graphics covering the period from March 2017 to May 2020, which will be updated as the Institute receives information from the agencies or entities concerned. The first of them, Puerto Rico Manufacturing Purchasing Managers Index (PRM-PMI), is an indicator that measures the short-term productive side of Puerto Rico's economy, specifically manufacturing, and includes employment indicators, supplier deliveries, inventories, new orders and production.

In the graph, Production and Consumption of Electric Energy in Puerto Rico, information can be obtained from indicators, such as active customers, net generation in millions of kilowatt-hours (mKWh), total consumption (mKWh), cost per kWh purchased, and total income, among others.

Users of the page will also be able to access the graph, Total Non-Agricultural Wage Employment, adjusted and without seasonal adjustment.

In the fourth graph that the section currently has, you can obtain data on the number of initial Unemployment Insurance claims, which they receive at the Department of Labor and Human Resources in Puerto Rico.

The new economic indicators section can be found at www.estadisticas.pr.gov and can be accessed directly at the following Internet address: https://cutt.ly/2uv06YI.

“We call on agencies and the private sector that work with updated data or statistics that impact the Puerto Rico economy, both agriculture, international trade, and goods and services industries (manufacturing, tourism, construction, finance, consumption, among others), to contact us so that we can continue to add economy-related indicators that serve as a reference for decision-making for the well-being of Puerto Rico,” said Ana Gabriela Jara Castro, Manager of Statistical Projects.

About the Institute of Statistics

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.

For more information you can visit the website www.estadisticas.pr.gov or surveys on the social networks of Facebook (@estadisticas .pr), Twitter (@EstadisticasPR) and LinkedIn (Institute of Statistics of Puerto Rico).

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Press Contacts:

Idia Martinez/787-603-3200/ imartinez@upfrontpr.net

Lourdes Burgos/787-562-2932/ lourdesburgos09@gmail.com

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