El Salvador Secures $50 Million to Make Economic Statistics More Reliable

The Economic Statistics Strengthening Program will finance a new Economic Census, modernise statistical systems and strengthen the institutions responsible for producing official information.

Decisions about investment, jobs and public spending depend on understanding what is happening across an economy, including the businesses and workers that official figures can struggle to capture. El Salvador is set to strengthen that understanding through a $50 million loan approved by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), supporting a programme to make economic statistics more reliable, timely, relevant and accessible to the people who use them.

A New Census to Capture a Fuller Economic Picture

The Economic Statistics Strengthening Program will finance a new Economic Census, modernise statistical systems and strengthen the institutions responsible for producing official information. The Central Reserve Bank of El Salvador (BCR) will carry out the programme, with work focused on improving both the quality of economic data and its use in decisions made by government, businesses and citizens.

Information on the informal economy will be an important part of the census, reflecting the significant contribution this sector makes to employment and economic activity in El Salvador. Collecting detailed information on formal and informal productive activities should provide a fuller picture of how the country earns its living, giving decision-makers a stronger basis for understanding economic needs and opportunities across different parts of society.

Digital Tools to Make Economic Information More Useful

Digital technologies will be used throughout the census cycle, covering the collection, management, analysis and release of information. The investment is intended to improve the systems behind official statistics and make their results easier to access, helping turn collected data into information that can support practical decisions about investment, productivity and economic development.

Ezequiel Cambiasso, the IDB Group's representative in El Salvador, emphasised that reliable and accessible economic information matters to governments, businesses and citizens alike. He said the programme would strengthen the country's statistical system and modernise the production of economic data, providing information needed to support investment, productivity and sustainable development. Its value will depend on people being able to find and use credible figures when making decisions that affect businesses, livelihoods and public resources.

Four Years to Build Stronger Statistical Capacity

The programme builds on previous IDB support for El Salvador's statistical system, including assistance for the 2024 Population and Housing Census and other efforts to modernise census work. The new financing will extend that cooperation through stronger institutional capabilities, updated data systems and broader access to high-quality economic information, with the BCR responsible for execution over four years.

Financing will come from the IDB's Ordinary Capital through a Specific Investment Loan, supporting a defined programme of improvements to economic statistics. The combination of digital census methods and detailed coverage of informal economic activity could produce useful lessons for other countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, where similar approaches may help statistical institutions better understand the full range of productive activity within their economies.