iGA holds national workshop on capacity building in implementing technology for developing price statistics

Manama, Dec. 3 (BNA): The Information & eGovernment Authority (iGA) held a national workshop on capacity building in implementing technology for developing price statistics. The workshop was held in line with the regional cooperative initiatives framework between the Kingdom of Bahrain and the Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA). During the workshop, participants were introduced to the latest technologies to be used in price collection from outlets. The collected prices are used to compile the Consumer Price Index (CPI) and the Purchasing Power Parity (PPP). Implementing such technology in the price collection process will improve the data quality, increase the pace of data collection, and increase the efficiency. iGA Director of Economic Statistics Noora Khamis Al-Saadoon explained that such workshops are in line with the authority’s vision to employ the latest technologies and use the Big Data and other innovative methodologies to improve the credibility and quality of the collected data. During the three-days workshop, participants were introduced to the most recent technology, methods of implementing them in the field of price statistics, their advantages, and the challenges facing their implementation. Moreover, participants were also practice the new technology extracting the data from different types of e-commerce outlets.