Economic expert has called on countries in the West African sub-region to embrace new methods of econometric analysis in monetary and fiscal policies implementation, in order to fast track decision making process for greater economic growth.

The Director, Debt Management department, West African Institute for Financial and Economic Management, Mr. Baba Musa, made this known, at the opening course on ‘Econometric methods for policy    analysis’, organised for staff of the Central Banks of Nigeria, Gambia, Ghana, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation, Ghana Revenue Authority and the Federal Ministry of Investment, Nigeria.

According to him, “The importance of econometric methods for policy analysis cannot be over stressed, as it helps in understanding the operations of an economy and enhances policy and decision making process, both at the macro and micro levels. This method is useful in monitoring economic performance, making short and long term projections to determine the path for economic growth that policy makers can follow.”

He added: “To ensure its efficiency, there is the need for assessing trends and developments in the domestic economy and external environment. Central banks in the subregion should have clear understanding of monetary transmission mechanism, which is realised through macro econometric methods on the reality of the economy.  Also, there is urgent need to have a sound system for acquiring, sharing and analysing financial data, so that policy can respond quickly to unforeseen developments or shocks and steer actions to achieve the objectives.’

He went on, “In using this method, it is important to understand the linkages between theory, data, economic methods, forecasting and policy decision. As such, this course has been designed to upgrade the analytically skills of participants in econometric theory and also to enhance their understanding in the conduct of basic econometric analyses and forecasting.