as bananas and sugar whose preferences are being gradually removed. in the financial arena, the proliferation of standards and codes, and the efforts of the oecd have had a negative impact on our embryonic offshore finance sector. they have also posed a challenge to our indigenous domestic banks by making it somewhat difficult with their correspondent relationships. fluctuating output of the world economy, and particularly in the countries we trade with, mainly the usa, canada, the uk and europe has a direct impact on our economic performance. the same is true in the case of the fluctuations in major currencies. we are linked to the us dollar so that fluctuations between that currency, the euro, sterling and the canadian dollar have implications for us in the currency union. a major factor which impacts on the performance of our economies is the price of oil which in recent times has been at unprecedentedly high levels. it is our major import, and the price passes through to almost every item of consumption or production. finally, the geopolitics of the international system, particularly the fight against terrorism has to be carefully examined, as it could potentially impact on our major foreign exchange earner, tourism. domestically we have to treat with the fundamental issue of small size, both in terms of land mass and population. the question we have to pose for ourselves is, given the resources we have, what standard of living is possible and sustainable over long periods of time? the imbalance between expectations and resources in most countries shows up in the balance of payments on the external account and in the budget domestically. not many, if any country, could like the us get away with running these twin deficits over any period of time, as they are almost self correcting as creditors both external and domestic will withdraw their support at some stage. in fact, in the us, chairman of the federal reserve, alan greenspan has expressed his concern about the current situation. antigua and barbuda, as well as other countries in the currency union face this situation, and i can only urge that it be vigourously addressed. the oecs countries have understood more than the rest of the regional community the need for regional integration. while the bigger countries like jamaica and trinidad and tobago have felt that they had other options, the smaller islands have understood that it meant their very survival. this is a defining moment in the sense that we are about to embark on a new venture, the caribbean single market and economy, csme and for it

. individuals have to present their income and financial statements to the tax authorities so that they can be fairly assessed and make a contribution, so that in exchange the government can provide the services of law and order, sanitation, education, etc which add to the quality of life. all countries as members of the international community, and, in particular, the imf have to transmit to that organization for official publication in a document entitled “ international financial statistics ” their national accounts, balance of payments, fiscal, monetary and price statistics. these figures obviously are of critical importance to the country itself in two ways. firstly, how can good policies be made if there are no timely and accurate statistics, and how can the progress of the country be accurately assessed if there are no reliable statistics to make the judgment? secondly, if both foreign and domestic investors have no access to accurate data, how can they make serious decisions on potential investment opportunities? in both developing and emerging market economies, tv and radio stations, newspapers and business magazines keep the public well informed on commercial, financial and economic affairs. in this churning up of information, analysis and commentary, individuals and business firms are presented with increased choices for both saving and investment. in this environment, businesses rise and fall based on the performance of markets, and their ability to manage their resources. while speculation abounds this is mostly based on the review and analysis, no matter how cursory, of what is taken to be accurate and credible statistics produced and published at set periods by official or publicly acknowledged institutions. information is such a critical part of this era that not only do we speak of the information age but three distinguished economists have received the nobel prize for their work in this subject area. it is against this background that we can outline the external and domestic environment in which we exist, define the domain or theatre of action in which we operate, point out the goals and objectives we have set for ourselves and / or have been set for us, and review the policy tools we have at our disposal to meet these objectives. in the case of the external environment, we live in what has now been accepted as an increasingly globalised world. barriers to trade and finance are being removed across the international community, and the spread of technology both in basic sciences and materials, as well as information and communication technologies have literally created a global village. this trend has inevitably presented challenges to all countries in different ways. free trade regimes have had an impact on our traditional agricultural export commodities, such