The additional uncertainty facing African central banks extends further. Monetary policy decisions inevitably depend on a host of economic developments. Determining the appropriate stance of monetary policy requires that the current state of the economy should be correctly reflected in the available economic statistics. The relevant statistics should also be available timeously and be reliable and credible.
Therefore adequate resource allocation to the statistics offices is of paramount significance for central banks and monetary policy. In the absence of correct and timeous economic statistics, it is impossible to determine the current state of the economy, let alone forecast future developments.