PHILIPSBURG, Sint Maarten — The Department of Statistics (STAT), is commencing this week to collect data via its Business Cycle Survey. This is the last of 2 surveys being conducted amongst business establishments this year.
While some enterprises and foundations have already received the National Accounts Survey in the past few weeks, the current Business Cycle Survey is a separate and different instrument, designed to capture estimates of business performance over the 2016 period specifically.
This will help STAT to assess the economic situation of industries (within Non-financial sector) of the current year. The target group includes all businesses with ten employees or more; and a sample of businesses with nine or less employees, the survey-period will continue through mid-December 2016.
Entities receiving the Business Cycle Survey can expect questions related to their overall activity in 2016, including levels and changes in turnover, personnel, expenses and investments. Additionally questions will include the opinions of entrepreneurs regarding competitiveness, confidence in business and the economy and their 2017 expectations.
STAT-trained interviewers will be distributing and collecting the Business- 2 Cycle questionnaires and will be available to provide support on filling the forms if this is necessary. Companies are reminded that the Business Cycle Survey is not required to be completed by an accountant, as only rough estimates are being asked.
STAT urges the business community to fully cooperate with the Business Cycle survey, and give consideration to the relatively short data-collection time span of 8 weeks. As is customary, the survey will be conducted entirely confidentially and the more input received from the private-sector, the more industry specific statistics can be produced.
